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r/T— 


POPULAR  NOVELS. 
By  Marion    Harland. 


I. ALONE. 

II. — HIDDEN    PATH.    ^ 
HI.— MOSS   SIDE. 
IV. — NEMESIS. 

V. MIRIAM. 

VI. HUSKS. 

vii. — HELEN  GARDNER'S  WEDDING-DAY. 

VIII. SUNNVBANK. 

IX. HUSBANDS    AND    JIO.MKS. 

X. RUBY'S    HUSBAND. 

xi. — PHEMIE'S  TEMPTATION.     (Just  Published.) 


'The  novels  of  Marion  Harland  are  of  surpassing  ex 
cellence.     By  intrinsic  j>ower  of  character-draw 
ing  and  descriptive  facility,  they  hold  the 
reader's  attention  with  the  most  in 
tense  interest  and  fascination." 


All  published  uniform  with  this  yoltime,  at  $1.50,  and  sent 
by  mail,  free  of  postage,  on  receipt  of  price,  by 

CARLETON,    Publisher, 
New  York. 


PHEMIE'S 


TEMPTATION 


llcwel. 


BY 

MARION  HARLAND, 


AUTHOR   0» 


"HIDDEN  PATH,"  "NEMESIS,"1  "  MOSS  SIDE,"  "MIRIAM,"  "HUSKS,1 
HELEN  GARDNER,"  "  SCXXYBANK,"  "  HUSBAXDS  AND  HOMES," 
"RUBY'S  HUSBAND,"  ETC. 


NEW   YORK: 

Carleton,  Publisher,  Madison  Square. 

LONDON  :    S.  LOW,  SON  &  CO. 
M  DCCC  LXIX. 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1869,  by 

M.  VIRGINIA  TERHUNE, 

In  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  Of  the  United  States  for  the  Southern 
District  of  New  York. 


THB  NEW  YORK  PRINTING  COMPANY, 

81,  83,  and?>5  Centre  Street, 

NEW  YORK. 


PHEMIE'S  TEMPTATION. 


932728 


PHEMIE'S    TEMPTATION. 


CHAPTER   I. 


The  book-keeper  glanced  up  from  the 
long  lines  of  figures  she  was  computing. 
She  was  young—  just  three-and-twenty  — 
and  a  remarkable-looking  girl.  It  was 
not  that  her  eyes  were  brown  and  bright;  that  the 
mouth,  which  might  else  have  been  objected  to  as 
large,  was  redly  ripe  as  a  June  cherry,  and  held  a 
wealth  of  perfect  teeth  ;  tliat  her  brunette  com 
plexion  was  clear  and  warm,  and  just  now  flushed 
to  brilliancy  by  the  heat  of  the  store.  These  attrac 
tions  might  have  been  massed  in  another  face,  and 
not  have  challenged  the  second  and  more  prolonged 
gaze  most  observers  were  constrained  to  bestow  upon 
hers.  Her  dark  hair  was  parted  on  the  left  side, 
and,  sweeping  across  the  brow,  made  it  square  as 
well  as  broad,  an  effect  heightened  by  the  breadth 


8  PHEMI&S  TEMPTATION. 

of  the  under  jaw,  and  the  firm,  cleft  chin.  The 
short  bow  of  the  upper  lip  bespoke  decision  and 
spirit;  the  passionate  pout  of  the  lower  was  that  of 
a  petted  and  loving  child.  There  were  no  unfinished 
ctirves,  no  lax  lines  in  contour  or  in  feature,  and  the 
expression  of  the  whole  was  power — of  feeling,  as 
of  thought.  Her  dress  was  simple  in  the  extreme, 
and  unsuited  to  the  season.  It  was  buff  Nankeen, 
trimmed  with  black,  and  had  evidently  seen  much 
use  and  several  washings.  Her  only  ornament  was 
a  small,  old-fashioned  brooch,  containing  a  lock  of 
gray  hair,  and  confining  a  plain  linen  collar  about 
the  round,  smooth  throat.  She  sat  upon  a  high  stool 
at  a  desk,  with  a  low  railing  around  the  top,  set 
within  a  recess  of  the  wall  midway  between  the  front 
door  of  the  fashionable  fancy  store  and  the  great 
mirror  at  the  farther  end. 

"What  is  it?"  she  asked,  briefly. 

"  Take  twenty-six  fifty  out  of  that ! "  answered  the 
saleswoman  who  had  interrupted  her,  tendering  two 
bank-notes. 

The  book-keeper  inspected  one  more  closely  than 
she  did  the  other. 

"  That  $20  is  a  counterfeit ! "  she  pronounced  in 
her  abrupt  fashion. 

"  Are  you  sure  ?  " 

"  If  I  were  not,  I  should  not  make  the  assertion. 
It  is  a  counterfeit — and  a  poor  one.  Take  it  back 
to  the  person  who  offered  it,  and  say  so." 

The  other  hung  back. 

"  I  don't  like  to ! "  she  objected,  in  a  lower  tone. 


PHEMIE' S  TEMPTATION.  9 

"  I  shall  offend  her  mortally,  if  I  do.  She  is  very 
rich  and  fashionable,  and  there  is  a  gentleman  with 
her.  I  can't  tell  her  she  has  given  me  a  bad  note." 

"You  take  the  responsibility  of  exchanging  it, 
then  ?  "  pulling  open  the  money-drawer,  as  she  said  it. 

"  Don't  be  a  fool,  Phemie  Rowland  !  I  have  not 
twenty  dollars  in  the  world." 

"  Get  Mr.  Arnold  to  break  the  news  you  are  afraid 
to  carry,  if  the  customer  is  BO  valuable,"  suggested 
Phemie,  impatiently.  "  I  haven't  time  to  waste  in 
discussing  the  matter." 

"He  isn't  in,  and  he  would  send  me  off  with  a  flea 
in  my  ear,  if  I  were  to  go  to  him  with  such  a  request." 

"Stay  here  by  my  desk,  then,  and  I  will  settle  the 
difficulty ! "  starting  up,  with  the  air  of  one  whose 
forbearance  was  waxing  low.  "  Where  is  your  rich 
and  fashionable  sensitive  plant  ? " 

"  That  is  she !  in  the  cashmere  shawl  and  blue 
hat — talking  with  the  tall  gentleman  by  the  left- 
hand  counter." 

Phemie  Rowland  stepped  from  the  dais  that  held 
her  desk  and  stool,  and  walked  down  the  aisle  be 
tween  the  counters,  the  doubtful  bill  in  her  hand. 
Her  gait  was  what  might  have  been  expected,  after 
a  sight  of  her  square  face  and  ripe,  resolute  mouth 
— firm,  but  elastic — steady,  yet  graceful  as  the  mo 
tion  of  a  royal  yacht  through  calm  water.  The  gen 
tleman  conversing  with  the  lady-customer  had  seen 
her,  in  the  full  glare  of  the  central  skylight,  as  she 
descended  from  the  platform,  and  watched  her  ap 
proach,  his  eye  and  smile  so  abstracted  from  the 
1* 


10  PHEMI£TS  TEMPTATION. 

subject  of  which  his  companion  was  speaking,  that 
she  would  have  turned  to  see  what  had  diverted  his 
notice  from  her,  had  he  not  interrupted  her  to  say  in 
a  hasty  "  aside  " — 

"  Look  at  this  young  lady  as  she  passes  us !  She  is 
superb ! " 

Looking  around  in  ready  and  piqued  curiosity,  his 
fair  friend  met  the  cashier  face  to  face,  with  a  start 
and  blush  he  mistook  for  confusion  at  seeins:  the  ob- 

o 

ject  of  remark  so  near  them,  but  which  Phemie 
knew  was  unwilling  recognition.  Her  eyes  were  as 
quick,  her  memory  as  faithful  when  the  features  un 
der  the  bine  bonnet  were  revealed  to  her  view,  her 
self-command  more  perfect.  She  accosted  the  lady 
with  grave  civility. 

"I  beg  your  pardon — but  did  you  not  buy  three 
and  a  half  yards  of  Valenciennes  lace  just  now,  for 
twenty-six  dollars  fifty  cents,  and  offer  two  notes — a 
$10  and  a  $20,  in  payment?  " 

"  I  did  !  "  haughtily. 

"I  regret  to  say  that  this  note  is  a  counterfeit!  " 
continued  Phemie,  involuntarily  imitating  the  other's 
manner.  "  It  was  brought  to  me,  and  I,  as  the  cash 
ier  and  book-keeper  of  the  establishment,  declined  to 
receive  it." 

The  customer  crimsoned  furiously  to  the  roots  of 
her  blonde  frizettes. 

"  There  is  some  mistake ! "  she  protested,  yet 
more  loftily.  "  I  had  the  bill,  not  ten  minutes  since, 
from  the  cashier  at  Wylie's.  His  judgment  is  surely 
worth  as  much  as  yours." 


PHEMIE  8  TEMPTATION.  11 

"I  am  accountable  to  Mr.  Arnold  for  my  action 
in  these  matters,"  was  the  answer.  "  If  the  bill  is 
good,  the  cashier  at  Wylie's  will  certainly  give  you 
another  for  it,  if  you  insist  upon  it.  If  I  am  right 
and  he  is  wrong,  you  can  compel  him  to  do  this." 

"  Allow  me,"  said  the  cavalier  in  attendance  upon 
the  irate  customer,  touching  his  hat,  as  he  took  the 
note  from  Miss  Rowland's  hand.  "  I  am  a  tolerable 
critic  of  currency.  And  while  I  examine  this,  please 
give  me  your  opinion  of  that !  "  presenting  a  bill  for 
the  same  amount  as  that  he  had  received. 

"  It  is  a  good  one ! "  Phemie  decided,  with  none 
of  the  pretty  airs  other  girls  of  her  class  would  have 
been  likely  to  put  on  in  conversation  with  a  young, 
handsome,  and  affable  gentleman. 

"  Oblige  me,  then,  by  accepting  it  as  a  substitute 
for  this  apple  of  discord  ! "  he  said,  bowing  to  both 
ladies,  as  he  put  the  condemned  bill  into  his  wallet 
and  snapped  to  the  clasp. 

His  companion  began  a  low  protest,  or  what 
Phemie  judged  to  be  such  from  the  accent,  as  the 
cashier  moved  away  ;  but  the  relief  expressed  in  her 
countenance  was  not  to  be  mistaken,  and  wrought 
in  the  minds  of  the  lookers-on  the  conviction  that 
her  dilemma  would  have  been  serious,  but  for  the 
gallant  intervention  of  her  escort ;  that  she  had  not 
the  means  of  paying  for  the  lace  which  had  been 
cut  off,  if  the  bill  she  had  offered  were  rejected.  It 
was  an  embarrassing  positjon,  and  Phemie  had  the 
magnanimity  to  pity  her,  as  she  reflected  upon  it ; 
to  wish  that  she  could  have  spared  her  the  mortifica- 


12  PHEKIE'S  TEMPTATION. 

tion,  or  made  it  less  public.  She  despatched  the 
change  due  the  purchaser  by  Lucy  Harris,  the  girl 
who  had  sold  the  lace,  and  plunged  anew  into  the 
column  of  figures. 

"  Yon  have  offended  Miss  Mallory,  Phemie  !  "  the 
saleswoman  was  so  ungrateful  as  to  remark  by  and 
by,  in  passing.  "  She  was  as  red  in  the  face  as  a 
boiled  lobster,  and  her  eyes  snapped  like  a  pair  of 
percussion  caps  when  I  handed  her  the  change  and 
told  her  how  sorry  I  was  she  had  been  troubled  about 
the  note,  but  that  you  had  the  name  of  being  over 
particular  in  such  matters.  'I  shall  be  careful  not 
to  subject  myself  to  the  chance  of  similar  annoyances 
in  future,'  she  remarked,  meaning,  of  course,  that 
she  would  steer  clear  of  the  store  after  this." 

Phemie  made  no  reply.  Her  pen  was  slowly  tra 
versing  the  length  of  the  page,  at  an  elevation  of 
a  quarter  of  an  inch  above  the  paper,  her  eyes  fol 
lowing  the  course  of  the  nib,  as  if  it  were  the  index 
of  a  patent  computer. 

"  Mr.  Arnold  will  be  mad  as  a  March  hare,  if  the 
affair  gets  to  his  ears,"  persisted  the  intruder,  who 
seemed  to  be  affluent  in  comparisons.  "I  had  rather 
be  in  my  place  than  yours,  when  he  comes  to  inquire 
about  it." 

The  same  silence  and  apparent  deafness  on  the 
part  of  the  person  attacked;  but  Lucy  was  not 
easily  rebuffed. 

"I  don't  wonder  she  was  fretted!"  hitching  her 
self  on  to  the  corner  of  the  railing  by  one  elbow  and 
fumbling  with  the  pen-rack,  in  an  irritating  style 


PREMIE'S  TEMPTATION.  13 

that  made  Phemie  tighten  her  fingers  upon  page  and 
pen.  "I  shouldn't  relish  being  taken  to  task  for 
passing  bad  money  when  my  beau  was  by." 

JJere,  to  the  listener's  great  relief,  she  had  to  obey 
a  call  "forward,"  but  not  without  an  audible  mutter 
relative  to  "people  who  held  themselves  so  almighty 
high  and  stiff!" 

Phemie  pinned  her  thoughts,  with  her  eyes,  down 
to  the  routine  of  her  appointed  labor,  through  .  all 
the  winter  afternoon.  If  she  were  more  taciturn 
and  unsmiling  than  usual,  nobody  noticed  it.  She 
was  never  merry  or  conversational  in  business  hours. 
The  frivolous  gossips  of  the  clerical  sisterhood  em 
ployed  by  Arnold  &  Co.  were  not  tempted  to  hang 
about  her  desk  on  dull  days,  or  during  spare  minutes 
on  busy  ones.  She  lived  as  essentially  apart  from 
them  as  if  her  sex  and  employment  had  not  been 
the  same  as  theirs.  "An  automaton  in  Nankeen!" 
they  called  her,  in  derisive  allusion  to  the  material 
of  her  every-day  garb,  and  they  had  an  uncomfortable 
and  very  positive  impression  that  she  despised  them 
rather  more  than  they  could  her.  Her  fitness  for 
her  post  was  incontrovertible.  She  had  gained  it 
over  the  heads  of  a  crowd  of  other  applicants,  and 
discharged  the  manifold  and  onerous  duties  pertain 
ing  to  it  with  industry  and  exactness  that  wejpe 
absolutely  unimpeachable.  She  wrote  a  rapid,  legible 
hand,  computed  with  swift  correctness,  was  eviqc 
self-possessed  and  on  the  alert  for  the  interests  of 
her  employer,  and  never  squandered  a  second  ot 
the  time  he  had  bought,  upon  the  pursuits  to  which 


14  PREMIERS  TEMPTATION. 

the  other  "young  ladies"  were,  without  an  exception, 
addicted.  -!No  surreptitious  novel,  or  equally  con 
traband  needlework  ever  nestled  in  her  drawer  or 
pocket,  to  be  produced  when  the  overlooker's  hack 
was  turned,  and  only  such  regards  were  upon  the 
delinquent  as  were  hoodwinked  by  the  kindness  of  a 
fellow-feeling.  She  never  munched  bon-bons,  or 
nibbled  slyly  at  sandwiches  at  unlawful  seasons ; 
was  never  flurried,  or  pert,  or  insolent. 

"In  short"— Mr.  Arnold  had  been  heard  by  jealous 
eaves-droppers  to  declare,  in  humble  and  loyal  imi 
tation  of  the  heads  of  certain  great  departments  of 
a  certain  magnificent  Government,  whose  employ 
ment  of  women  as  clerks  is  an  honor  to  their 
economical  instincts,  if  not  to  their  hearts — "she 
does  her  work  as  well — if  not  better  than  any  man 
I  could  engage  for  double  what  I  pay  her.  If  she 
has  a  feminine  foible,  I  don't  know  it.  There  should 
be  more  avenues  of  honorable  labor  opened  to  wo 
men,  sir,  and  I  am  doing  my  best  as  a — ah — sort  of 
pioneer  in  this  respect." 

Phemie  had  been  very  busy  through  all  this  day. 
The  weather  had  been  fine  in  the  forenoon,  and  the 
store  was  thronged  until  near  sunset.  She  was  the 
last  to  quit  the  place,  with  the  exception  of  the 
porter,  who  eyed  her  sourly,  as  she  bent  over  her 
ledger  when  the  rest  had  hurried  on  cloaks  and 
hoods,  with  an  immense  deal  of  cackling,  and  gig 
gling,  and  loud  talking,  and  departed  to  their  homes 
and  suppers. 

"Most  through?"  he  said,  breaking  into  a  tedious 


PHEMIE'S  TEMPTATION.  15 

calculation  that  had  engrossed  her  for  ten  minutes, 
and  which  must  be  recommenced,  if  she-  gave  him  a 
thought  at  this  juncture. 

She  did  not  reply  until  she  had  written  the  total 
at  the  foot  of  the  page.  "  Give  me  a  moment  more, 
please,  James!  Or,  if  you  will  leave  the  keys  with 
me,  I  will  see  that  everything  is  locked  up,  and 
deliver  them  at  your  house  on  my  way  home." 

The  man  growled,  dissentingly.  "On  your  way 
home !  You'll  have  to  go  six  blocks  out  of  your  way 
to  leave  'em !  It's  too  late  and  dark  for  young  girls 
to  be  gadding  about  the  streets  alone,  at  any  rate. 
The  devil's  around  like  a  roaring  lion  at  night  more 
than  at  any  other  time.  If  you  were  my  child,  you 
should  be  in  by  sundown." 

"Necessity  knows  no  law,  James!"  with  a  smile, 
at  once  amused  and  sad ;  "  I  thank  you,  though ! " 

She  did  not  say  for  what.  Only,  when  her  task 
was  accomplished — her  cloak,  a  sacque  of  rough 
cloth,  like  a  man's  dreadnaught,  buttoned  across  her 
bust,  and  her  gray  beaver  hat  tied  under  her  cleft 
chin — she  spoke  again,  and  in  a  milder  voice. 

"  You  were  kind  to  wait  upon  me — very  prudent 
to  advise  me  to  go  home  earlier.  You  are  a  good 
father,  I  am  sure,  and  your  daughters  must  love  you 
dearly.  Good-night ! " 

"  Half-past  seven ! "  she  said  to  herself,  glancing 
into  a  watchmaker's  window.  "  I  am  behind  time. 
It  is  going  to  rain,  too  ! " 

Until  seven  o'clock  of  the  next  morning  her  time 
was  her  own— she  belonged  to  herself.  The  first  use 


16  PREMIE'S  TEMPTATION. 

she  made  of  her  liberty  was  to  think  and  to  say,  half 
aloud  :  "  Clara  Mallory  pretended  not  to  know  me  !  " 

She  had  beaten  back  the  haunting  thought  a  hun 
dred  times  during  the  busy  afternoon  ;  had  reminded 
herself  that  wounded  pride  and  affection  were  pri 
vate  weaknesses  that  would  clog  thought  and  retard 
action  in  Mr.  Arnold's  behalf.  But  she  had  it  out 
with  these  and  Memory,  in  her  two-mile  walk 
through  the  damp,  chilly  streets. 

Clara  Mallory  had  been  her  desk-mate  at  Madame 
Tourbillon's  seminary  ;  the  most  intimate  associate 
of  her  out-of-school  hours,  five  years  ago.  Mr.  Row 
land,  if  less  wealthy,  even  then,  than  Clara's  father, 
occupied  a  higher  position  in  society  by  virtue  of  his 
superior  education  and  refinement,  and  lived  in  equal 
style.  His  daughters'  dresses  at  home  and  at  school 
were  as  expensive  as  Clara's,  and  in  far  better  taste, 
while  their  advanced  grade  of  scholarship  gave  them 
precedence  of  Miss  Mallory  with  teachers  and  pupils, 
as  did  their  breeding  and  personal  advantages  in  the 
world  outside  the  schoolroom.  Euphemia  Rowland, 
in  the  pride  of  her  budding  beauty  and  acknowledg 
ed  talents,  might  have  selected  a  more  brilliant  and 
appreciative  friend  than  the  merely  pretty  and  lively 
girl  whom  she  elevated  to  the  place  of  confidante, 
but  this  her  generous  affection  forbade  her  to  do. 
She  learned  to  love  Clara  because  they  lived  near 
one  another,  and  shared  the  same  form  during  lesson 
hours;  because,  being  impulsive  and  warm-hearted, 
she  must  love  somebody,  and  could  not  live  unless 
she  were  beloved  in  return,  and  Clara's  professions 


PREMIE'S  TEMPTATION.  17 

of  boundless  attachment  allayed  the  latter  craving. 
They  had  no  secrets,  therefore,  that  were  not  com 
mon  property,  and  exchanged  keepsakes  as  freely, 
if  not  as  frequently,  as  they  did  thoughts,  and  lived 
on  in  happy,  loving  carelessness  of  sorrow  or  change, 
until  both  overtook  Phemie,  and  swept  her,  with  the 
rush  of  an  avalanche,  out  of  sight  and  ken  of  the 
prosperous  Mallorys. 

Mr.  Rowland  died  suddenly,  leaving  his  worldly 
aifairs  in  a  terribly  involved  condition.  After  a  deal 
of  trouble  on  the  part  of  the  executors,  the  state  of 
these  was  communicated  to  the  family.  They  were 
penniless;  worse  than  that;  for  the  entire  assets  of 
the  deceased  failed  to  meet  his  liabilities,  and  the  al 
tered  demeanor  of  fair-weather  friends  was  justified 
in  the  popular  judgment,  and,  to  a  limited  extent,  in 
that  of  the  bereaved  relatives  by  the  fact  that  others 
beside  themselves  —  many  of  them  creditors  who 
could  ill  bear  the  loss — were  sufferers  by  their  calam 
ity.  The  eldest  daughter,  Emily — a  comely,  but  by 
no  means  intellectual  woman — had  married,  a  few 
months  prior  to  her  father's  death,  a  young  and 
prosperous  merchant,  who,  albeit,  not  inclined  by 
nature  or  habit  to  acts  of  disinterested  benevolence, 
could  not  do  less  than  advance  the  first  quarter's 
rent  of  a  small  house  in  an  unfashionable  part  of  the 
city.  To  this  the  widow  removed,  while  her  weeds 
were  yet  fresh,  with  her  four  unmarried  children — 
Charlotte,  Euphemia,  Olive,  and  Albert.  The  eldest 
of  these  was  twenty  at  the  date  of  their  reverses,  the 
youngest  but  ten.  Then  commenced  a  struggle  for 


18  PREMIERS  TEMPTATION. 

life  that  merited  the  name.  For  a  while,  the  mother 
and  daughters  took  in  plain  sewing ;  stabbed  them 
selves  from  dawn  until  midnight  with  their  needles 
to  buy  food  for  their  mouths ;  cheap  clothing  for 
their  backs  ;  fuel  to  warm  them,  and  to  pay  the  rent 
of  the  house  that  sheltered  their  fallen  heads.  I  need 
not  recapitulate  the  various  stages  of  the  unsuccess 
ful  experiment.  Nor  is  it  necessary  to  state  that 
they  found  themselves,  at  the  end  of  the  trial  year, 
worse  in  health  and  spirits  than  at  the  beginning,  and 
so  backward  in  pecuniary  matters  that  Mr.  Mandell, 
the  son-in-law,  was  compelled  to  step  forward  with 
a  grudged  loan  that  should  square  the  accounts  of 
the  past  twelve  months,  and  with  a  quantity  of  gra 
tuitous  advice  relative  to  the  future. 

He  bestirred  himself  in  good  earnest,  moreover,  to 
prevent  a  recurrence  of  this  disaster.  He  obtained 
for  Charlotte  a  situation  as  instructress  in  the  pri 
mary  department  of  a  ward  school,  in  which  women 
received  most  equitable  salaries  —  averaging,  all 
around,  very  nearly  half  the  sum  paid  to  men  who 
did  the  same  work,  only  not  quite  as  well.  For 
Phemie,  he  got  a  place  as  teacher  of  a  country  dis 
trict  school,  and  he  would  have  bound  the  fifteen- 
year-old  Olive  apprentice  to  a  driving  dressmaker, 
but  for  the  obstinate  representations  of  the  other  sis 
ters  that  their  mother  was  too  delicate  to  undertake 
general  housework,  and  required  the  assistance,  if 
not  the  company,  of  one  of  her  daughters.  Albert 
went  to  a  public  school,  clothed  partially  by  Emily 
from  her  husband's  cast-off  garments.  The  Mandells 


PREMIERS  TEMPTATION.  19 

considered  that  they  "  had  done  well  by  their  poor 
relations,"  and  Mrs.  Rowland,  who  was  apt  to  take 
her  cue  from  her  first-born,  was  lavish  of  expressions 
of  gratitude.  That  Charlotte  and  Euphemia  did  not 
echo  these  was  a  symptom  of  depraved  and  thankless 
natures  over  which  the  exemplary  brother-in-law  sigh 
ed  privately  to  his  wife — which  sighs  of  a  generous 
heart  were  retailed  faithfully  by  her  to  the  distressed 
parent. 

Phemie  was  the  most  grievous  thorn  in  the  worthy 
man's  side.  "  She  reminds  me  of  the  stick  that  was 
too  crooked  to  lie  still  ? "  he  said,  plaintively,  to  the 
wife  of  his  bosom.  "  There  is  no  such  thing  as 
managing  her.  She  has  altogether  too*  much  will 
and  too  much  head  for  a  woman.  Her  sentiments 
and  language  border  upon  incendiarism  !  " 

This  objurgation  was  called  forth  by  her  second 
change  of  avocations  after  he  had  established  her, 
as  he  stated  the  case,  "  most  respectably."  She  re 
signed  the  charge  of  the  district  school  at  the  end  of 
the  session,  although  the  trustees  expressed  them 
selves  as  entirely  satisfied  with  her,  and  requested 
her  to  stay  with  them  another  term.  She  had  dis 
covered  that  the  salary  they  gave  her,  being  gradu 
ated  by  the  same  equitable  scale  as  fixed  her  sister 
Charlotte's,  did  not  equal  by  one-half  that  which 
they  had  paid  her  predecessor  —  a  very  youthful 
Sophomore,  in  need  of  funds  to  enable  him  to  prose 
cute  his  studies.  Her  conduct  of  the  school  was 
confessed  by  all — trustees  and  patrons-7-to  be  superior 
to  his. 


20  PREMIE' 8  TEMPTATION. 

"  And  if  I  can  do  a  man's  work,  I  should  have  a 
man's  wages !  "  said  the  ardent  and  ignorant  child. 

This  being  out  of  the  question — opposed  to  the 
genius  of  all  masculine  institutions — and  the  legal 
institutions  of  all  countries  are  masculine — she  threw 
up  the  situation  and  came  home.  She  had  husbanded 
every  penny -of  her  earnings,  and  pouring  them  into 
her  mother's  lap  in  the  midst  of  her  pathetic  rehash 
of  Mr.  Man  dell's  prophecies  of  the  ills  to  be  expected 
from  her — Phemie's — "  outrageous  and  suicidal  step  " 
— went  out  to  seek  for  work. 

She  found  it  in  less  than  three  days,  at  a  desk  in 
the  State  Treasury  Department.  She  had  solicited 
it  in  person,"and  the  Chief,  discovering,  in  the  course 
of  conversation,  that  her  father  had  been  an  old 
friend  of  his,  ventured  upon  the  innovation  of  giving 
her  the  post  upon  terms  that  approximated  honesty. 
She  worked  diligently  and  contentedly  under  his 
eye  for  eighteen  months,  and  Mr.  Mandell,  appre 
ciative  of  the  lifting  of  the  strain  upon  his  pocket, 
condescended  to  breathe  a  hope  that  "things  might 
eventuate  less  disastrously  than  he  had  feared  when 
Euphemia  rushed  so  madly  upon  a  course  that  was 
positively  unprecedented,  and  which,  he  still  thought, 
was  a  hazardous  venture  for  a  young  lady,  particu 
larly  one  whose  personal  appearance  was  so  conspi 
cuous."  Then  a  new  Governor  was  elected,  who 
knew  not  the  chief,  nor  any  of  his  party,  and  he 
made  clean  work  in  the  Treasury  Office,  from  the 
High  Secretary  down  to  the  boy  who  swept  the  floors 
and  fed  the  fires. 


PREMIERS  TEMPTATION.  21 

Phemie  had  to  march  with  the  rest.  She  spent 
one  afternoon  and  evening  at  home,  the  recipient  of 
Charlotte's  sympathy,  Olive's  kindly  offices  in  the 
culinary  line,  and  her  mother's  lamentations  and 
second-hand  prognostications.  The  Mandells  look 
ed  in,  after  tea,  the  following  evening,  and  were 
astounded  to  learn  that,  after  a  long  day's  tramp, 
Phemie  had  engaged  employment  as  a  saleswoman 
in  the  store  of  "Arnold  &  Co.,  Importers  and 
Manufacturers  of  Ladies'  Trimmings,  Eibbons,  Laces, 
etc." 

'  "  The  compensation  is  pitiful — a  dollar  a  day ! " 
said  Euphemia,  the  indomitable,  sipping  the  milk 
and  eating  the  stale  biscuit  that  served  her  as  a  sup 
per,  after  her  protracted  fast.  "  But  it  is  better 
than  nothing.  I  only  take  the  place  as  a  stepping- 
stone  to  something  better." 

"It  will  pay  the  rent,"  calculated  Mr.  Mandell. 
"  And  Charlotte  gets  three  hundred  more.  That 
ought  to  supply  your  table.  You  should  live  quite 
comfortably  upon  that,  with  what  your  mother  and 
Olive  make  by  their  needlework." 

"A  hundred  more  at  the  utmost!"  computed 
Phemie  to  herself.  "  Items  to  be  provided  out  of 
this — fuel,  clothing,  lights,  and  sundries.  That  will 
never  do !  I  must  strike  higher !  " 

She  did,  at  the  end  of  six  months,  by  applying 
for,  and  proving  her  ability  to  fill  the  post  of  book 
keeper  and  cashier  in  Mr.  Arnold's  establishment, 
which  then  chanced  to  fall  vacant.  When  she  en 
tered  upon  the  duties  of  her  advanced  position,  at  a 


22.  PHEMIKS  TEMPTATION. 

salary  of  six  hundred  dollars  a  year,  Mr.  Mandell 
felt  himself  called  upon  to  offer  exceedingly  guarded 
congratulations. 

"  You  should  begin  to  lay  aside  something  against 
a  rainy  day — at  least,  two  Imndred  a  year,"  he  said. 
"I  can  help  you  to  some  excellent  investments  for 
small  sums.  Above  all  things,  don't  let  your  extraor 
dinary  success  betray  you  into  extravagance." 

The  incorrigible  spendthrift  was  thinking,  at  that 
veiy  minute,  in  happy  deafness  to  his  prudential 
saws — "Now,  Lottie  shall  take  cod-liver  oil,  and 
next  vacation  a  trip  to  the  sea-shore.  Now,  mother 
shall  have  flannel  vests,  and  poor,  dear  Oily,  at  least 
one  new  dress ;  a  serviceable  merino,  or  all-wool  de 
laine.  Now,  Bertie  shall  go  to  school  a  year  longer. 
I  hated  the  idea  of  his  becoming  an  errand  boy  in 
Seth  Mandell's  store.  He  shall  have  a  thorough  ed 
ucation,  if  I  have  to  spend  every  dollar  upon  him 
that  I  can  save  from  household  expenses." 

But  prices  took  a  rise  before  she  had  occupied  her 
high  stool  a  single  quarter,  and  the  end  of  the  year 
brought  consternation  in  the  discovery  that  six  hun 
dred  nowadays  went  no  further  than  four  hundred 
used  to  do.  The  leaven  that  had  sent  everything 
else  up  with  yeasty  rapidity  had  not  operated  upon 
salaries.  These  are  regarded  by  Church,  State,  and 
private  corporations  as  strictly  non-inflatable  substan 
ces.  When  the  rest  of  the  universe  is  buoyant,  they 
lie  prone  and  impassive  in  a  state  that,  as  Gail 
Hamilton  says  of  her  transplanted  beetlings,  gives 
to  the  word  "flatness"  a  new  meaning.  This  is  all 


PHEMIE'S  TEMPTATION.  23 

right,  of  course,  or  it  wouldn't  be  so.  Irrational, 
undisciplined  Phemie  had  "incendiary"  notions  on 
this  subject  also.  I  am  ashamed  to  tell  it ;  but  she 
was  only  deterred  from  asking  Mr.  Arnold  for  an  in 
crease  of  wages  by  the  earnest  entreaties  of  her  sis 
ters  and  mother,  and  the  almost  tearful  protesta 
tions  of  Mr.  Maudell  that  she  would  thereby  write 
her  own  discharge. 

"  And  situations  are  frightfully  scarce  just  now," 
he  added. 

"  That  is  true ! "  assented  Phemie,  candidly. 
"  Ah,  well!  I  won't  let  this  bird  out  of  my  hand  until 
1  have  secured  his  fellows  in  the  bush." 

These  were  no  nearer  capture  now  than  when  she 
made  the  promise.  Prices  were  still  up,  and  salaries 
still  emulated  the  withered  beetlings.  There  were  a 
dozen  applications  for  every  vacant  situation,  and 
Phemie,  not  being  a  fool,  held  fast  to  her  bird  in  the 
hand,  however  lean  he  might  grow. 

The  struggle  for  a  livelihood  is  seldom  compatible 
with  a  fight  for  a  foothold  in  society.  The  Rowlands 
had  not  attempted  the  feat.  They  had  no  time  to 
pay  visits  to  the  now  remote  quarter  of  the  city  in 
which  they  had  formerly  resided,  and  it  is  to  be  pre 
sumed  that  their  then  acquaintances  were  troubled 
with  a  like  poverty  of  the  precious  commodity,  since 
they  did  not  seek  them  out.  When  misfortune  pricks 
one  of  the  rainbow  bubbles  that  float  on  the  whirl 
pool  of  fashionable  existence,  who  ever  saw  the  rest 
stop  to  inquire  into,  or  to  bemoan  its  vanishment? 
Phemie  had  set  all  this  in  array  before  herself  as 


24  PHEMI&S  TEMPTATION. 

many  times  as  the  recollection  of  her  early  intimates 
had  crossed  her  mind.  Mr.  Mallory  had  lost  money 
by  Mr.  Rowland's  failure,  and  being  a  vindictive 
man,  it  was  to  be  expected  that  he  should  sunder 
Clara  from  her  friend.  Phemie  had  shed  her  last 
tears  over  the  parting,  four  years  ago.  Time  had 
blunted  this  sorrow,  as  he  does  all  others.  But  that 
Clara  should  deliberately  refuse  to  recognize  her, 
should  address  her  as  a  stranger  not  of  her  caste,  was 
a  surprise,  and  a  severe  one. 

"  I  could  have  existed  without  this  lesson  in 
human  nature!"  said  the  girl,  in  bitter  sarcasm, 
trudging  along  in  the  rain  that  began  to  fall  before 
half  of  her  journey  was  accomplished. 

She  did  not  mind  bad  weather,  generally,  but  the 
effect  of  this  soaking  mist  was  singularly  dispiriting. 
It  sent  her  thoughts,  by  some  inexplicable  associa 
tion  of  ideas,  back  to  the  bright  and  sheltered  days 
of  yore ;  the  winter  evenings,  glad  with  mirth  and 
music,  and  the  pleasant  converse  of  the  fireside; 
when  it  was  easy  to  obey  the  injunction,  "  Take  no 
thought  for  the  morrow," — the  morrow  crowned  with 
hope,  as  to-day  was  with  fruition.  The  solitary 
ring  she  wore  had  been  a  Christmas  present  from 
Clara  on  the  last  holiday  they  had  passed  together. 
Miss  Mallory  must  have  seen  it  upon  the  hand  that 
held  the  disputed  bank-note.  It  was  not  an  ordinary 
pattern  ;  a  garnet  heart  set  heavily  in  chased  gold, 
relieved  by  lines  of  black  enamel.  Phemie  plucked 
off  her  wet  glove  with  the  intention  of  removing 
the  gage  d*  amour  that  was  such  no  longer,  but 


PREMIERS  TEMPTATION.  25 

changed  her  purpose,  while  her  fingers  were  upon 
the  circlet. 

"  I  will  riot  throw  it  away  !  People  in  our  cir 
cumstances  cannot  afford  to  be  wasteful!  I '11  give 
it  to  Bertie,  and  let  him  sell  it.  It  will  help  buy 
the  Greek  dictionary  he  is  pining  for.  "Where  is  the 
use  of  being  in  trade  if  one  doesn't  learn  to  be  mer 
cenary?  Seth  would  commend  this  disposition  of  a 
school-girl's  keepsake.  It  is  quite  in  his  line.  Poor 
old  ring !  you  have  given  me  some  happy  moments 
in  the  past." 

She  kissed  it  before  she  re-covered  her  hand.  Her 
brother-in-law  might  well  consider  her  "  a  queer  mix 
ture." 

"  If  she  had  not  recollected  me,  I  should  not  have 
wondered.  I  have  altered  very  much  since  we  used 
to  walk  to  school,  arm-in-arm .  My  dress  is  a  dis 
guise  in  itself.  Our  smart  housemaid  of  those  times 
would  have  been  ashamed  to  wear  one  like  it  when 
she  opened  the  door  for  the  postman.  But  Clara 
knew  me !  I  am  too  familiar  with  her  countenance 
to  doubt  that.  I  might  add  too  used  to  the  recep 
tion  of  cuts  direct,  not  to  understand  the  features  of 
such.  She  knew  me  on  the  instant ;  and  dreaded 
lest  I  should  proclaim  our  former  acquaintanceship 
before  her  distingue  cavalier.  He  behaved  hand 
somely  ;  extricated  us  from  our  awkward  situation 
very  cleverly.  So,  she  is  to  marry  him — if  Lucy 
Harris's  tattle  is  worthy  of  credit.  I  hope  she  will 
be  happy ! " 

The  vision  of  a  home  cosily  luxurious;  a  loving 
2 


26  PHEMIE'S  TEMPTATION. 

husband,  who  accounted  it  a  pleasure  to  foresee  and 
supply  every  want  of  her  he  had  wooed  and  won,  of 
social  pleasures  and  intellectual  repasts,  such  as  the 
wealthy  command,  and  the  poor  in  all  but  heart  and 
brains  vainly  crave,  what  was  this  to  the  high-souled, 
great-hearted  girl,  who  paid  by  her  daily  toil  for  the 
humble  abode  that  barely  held  her  mother's  house 
hold  ;  who  had  never  had  a  lover  whose  mental 
qualifications  she  did  not  despise,  and  whose  person 
was  not  disagreeable  to  her ;  whose  friends  could  be 
told  upon  the  fingers  -of  one  hand,  and  whose  one 
"  evening  out "  during  the  present  season  had  been 
spent  in  hearing  a' scientific  lecture  from  an  eminent 
scholar  and  orator — a  treat  for  which  she  paid  a 
dollar,  and  went  gloveless  to  church  for  a  month 
afterward  lest  lier  conscience  should  accuse  her  of 
selfish  extravagance  ? 

She  met  the  contrast,  vividly  outlined  by  imagina 
tion,  between  her  situation  and  that  of  her  whilom 
confidante,  with  a  brave  show  of  the  dauntless  spirit 
which  was  her  characteristic. 

"  Never  mind !  My  turn  will  come,  I  dare  say. 
If  I  do  feel,  occasionally,  as  did  the  poor  fellow  who 
called  out,  when  the  ballad-singer  was  trolling 
'  There's  a  good  time  coming,  boys,' — '  I  say,  mister, 
you  couldn't  name  the  day,  could  you  ? ' — the  fault 
is  in  my  courage  or  faith — maybe  in  both.  I  find 
this  state  of  intense  humidity  unfavorable  to  the  de 
velopment  of  these.  Home  at  last !  and  lights  in  the 
parlor.  An  invasion  of  relatives,  I  fear !  " 

She  entered  the  lower  door,  and  groped  her  way 


PREMIER  TEMPTATION.  27 

through  a  small,  dark  hall  into  the  front  basement, 
which  served  the  double  purpose  of  kitchen  and 
dining-room.  The  only  other  apartment  on  this 
floor  was  a  mere  closet  in  the  rear,  used  as  a  pan  try. 
The  furniture  was  plain  and  scanty ;  the  one  kero 
sene  lamp  lighted  the  place  indifferently,  but  the 
small  grate  of  the  cooking-stove  was  warm  and 
glowing.  Phemie  knelt  upon  the  floor  before  it, 
and  held  her  benumbed  fingers  close  to  the  hot 
bars. 

"I'm  a  dripping  glacier,  Olive!"  she  said,  to  her 
younger  sister,  when  she  offered  to  unfasten  her  hat 
and  cloak.  "  My  toggery  would  have  been  spoiled, 
if  it  could  have  been  injured  at  all.  As  it  is,  it  will 
look  as  well  to-morrow  as  it  has  done  for  these  two 
years  past.7' 

"You  should  have  taken  an  umbrella,  this  morn 
ing,  as  I  begged  you  to  do,"  rejoined  Olive,  an 
apple-cheeked,  round-eyed  maiden  of  twenty,  wiping 
the  felt  hat  dry  with  a  soft  cloth. 

"Take  care!  you'll  rub  the  nap  off!"  cautioned 
Phemie,  comically.  "  That  would  be  an  irreparable 
injury.  I  cannot  endure  an  umbrella;  I  prefer  a 
thorough  wetting  any  day  to  the  trouble  of  carrying 
one  of  the  lumbering  nuisances.  And  nothing  shall 
induce  me  to  burden  myself  with  it  when  it  only 
threatens  to  storm.  The  most  ludicrously  pitiable 
object  I  meet  in  my  walks  abroad  is  the  man  or 
woman  who  lugs  about,  in  unexpected  sunshine,  a 
whalebone  and  gingham  incumbrance  that  stamps 
him  or  her  as  a  cowardly  false  prophet." 


28  PREMIE'S  TEMPTATION. 

"  That  does  well  enough  for  you  to  say,"  said 
Olive.  "  But  the  real  reason  why  you  don't  carry  an 
umbrella  is  that  you  leave  one  for  Charlotte,  because 
she  is  delicate ;  one  for  mother  or  me,  because  we 
must  go  to  market ;  one  for  Bertie,  lest  he  should 
catch  a  wetting  and  a  sore  throat,  and  there  is  none 
left  for  you.  You  should  buy  one  for  your  own  use, 
Phemie.  I  said  so  to  Charlotte,  to-night,  when  it 
began  to  rain.  It  is  wrong  to  expose  yourself  as  you 
do.  Your  life  and  health  are  worth  too  much  to  be 
risked  so  thoughtlessly." 

"  Nonsense !  "  said  Phemie,  good-humoredly,  get 
ting  up  from  the  floor.  "Half  the  illness  in  the 
world  is  brought  on  by  over-caution.  You  have 
kept  my  supper  warm  for  me,  I  see.  That  was  kind 
in  you.  I  am  quite  ready  for  it,  I  can  assure  you." 

It  was  frugal  as  an  anchorite's  fare — three  baked 
potatoes,  a  glass  of  milk,  a  half  loaf  of  brown  bread 
and  a  slice  of  butter. 

"  It  looks  so  dry !  "  mourned  Olive,  setting  it  upon 
the  table.  "  There  was  nothing  I  could  keep  warm 
except  the  potatoes.  I  wish  you  would  eat  meat 
once  a  day,  Phemie  !  You  work  so  hard !  " 

"  I  eat  what  suits  me  best,  you  carnivorous  little 
animal!  that  which  renews  the  tissues  and  supplies 
phosphates." 

"  Meat  is  nourishing,  isn't  it  ?  "  queried  common 
place  Olive. 

"  To  disease — yes  !  I  don't  seek  to  'convert  you, 
Oily.  So  long  as  you  tolerate  my  eccentricities,  I 


PREMIERS  TEMPTATION.  29 

am  content — or  should  be.  Who  is  upstairs  ? "  as  a 
louder  hum  of  voices  penetrated  the  ceiling. 

"  Seth  and  Emily,  and  " — with  perceptible  hesita 
tion — "  Joe  Bonney." 

"  Interesting  1 " 

"  I  wish  you  would  tell  me  one  thing,  Phemie," 
said  Olive,  still  hesitating,  with  a  wistful  look  upon 
her  rosy  face  and  in  her  round  eyes. 

"  I  will,  if  I  can,  Oily — as  many  things  as  you 
want  to  know." 

"  Why  do  you  dislike  Joe  Bonney  ?  He  fairly 
adores  you." 

"  You  have  answered  your  own  question — par 
tially.  He  persists  in  letting  everybody  see  that  he 
adores  me  in.  his  lumpish  way,  until  the  sight  of  him 
is  a  rank  offence  to  my  visual  organs.  An  hour  of 
his  society  is  a  phase  of  spiritual  mortification  that 
should  atone  for.  a  multitude  of  sins." 

"  That's  what  I  can't  understand  ! "  continued 
practical  and  puzzled  Olive.  "  He  is  rather  good- 
looking,  and  has  one  of  the  kindest  hearts  in  the 
world.  His  principles  are  excellent ;  he  is  doing 
well  in  his  business,  and  he  is  sensible  enough.  I 
am  often  amazed  at  remarks  he  makes  when  you  are 
not  by.  You  overawe  him,  somehow." 

"  I  have  no  doubt  he  is  very  well  in  his  way,  but 
his  way  doesn't  happen  to  be  mine,"  returned  Phe 
mie.  "  He  is  narrow-minded,  weak  and  obtuse.  I 
am  the  more  inclined  to  think  well  of  him  from  your 
advocacy  of  him  than  from  any  merit  I  have  ever 
discovered  in  the  sapient  youth.  There  is  one 


30  PREMIE'S  TEMPTATION. 

deplorable  counterpoise  to  this,  however.  He  is 
Seth  Mandell's  cousin,  and  enjoys  the  esteem  of  our 
incomparable  brother-in-law.  Furthermore,  Seth 
and  Emily  mean  that  I  shall  marry  him.  Finally, 
my  dear  sister,  /don't  mean  to  do  it ! " 

Olive  would  have  appealed  from  this  decision  but 
for  the  entrance  of  their  mother.  She  was  a  fragile 
woman,  who  had  been  pretty,  and  who  could  never 
look  otherwise  than  ladylike.  Her  manner  was  un 
decided,  at  times  deprecating,  always  more  or  less 
martyrlike.  One  would  as  soon  have  hunted  for 
eaglets  in  a  dove's  nest  as  imagined  that  she  was 
Phemie's  parent. 

"I  am  relieved  that  you  are  at  home,  my  child  !  " 
she  said,  when  she  had  kissed  Phemie,  mournfully. 
"  I  have  been  sadly  anxious  about  you.  It  is  really 
imprudent  for  you  to  be  out  so  late  without  an  escort. 
Mr.  Bonney  has  been  very  restless  ever  since  he 
came  and  heard  that  you  were  not  in.  He  would 
have  gone  to  meet  yon,  but  Charlotte  was  certain  he 
would  miss  you  on  the  way.  My  advice  was  that  he 
should  make  the  attempt,  but  Charlotte  is  very  head 
strong,  and  he  preferred  to  obey  her.  Xow,  dear, 
you  must  change  your  dress  right  away,  and  come  up 
to  our  friends.  A  little  lively  company  will  cheer  you 
up.  It  grieves  me  that  you  will  be  such  a  recluse." 

"  Is  it  really  essential  that  I  should  make  an  elab 
orate  toilet,  mother?  I  thought  this  irreproachable. 
My  dress  is  quite  dry  now,  and  my  collar  is  clean, 
isn't  it?" 

"  They  are  barely  admissible  for  the  morning — 


PHEMIE'S  TEMPTATION.  31 

utterly  unsuitable  for  evening  wear,"  said  Mrs.  Row 
land,  firmly.  Like  a  majority  of  weak  women,  she 
prided  herself  upon  "  taking  a  stand." 

"  Which  shall  it  be  ?  "  asked  Phemie,  resignedly, 
lighting  a  candle.  "  The  purple  velvet,  or  the  crim 
son  satin  ? " 

"  I  have  nothing  to  say  when  you  employ  that  tone 
toward  me,  Euphemia !  "  The  stand  was  taken  very 
strongly.  "If  you  can  reconcile  it  with  your  sense 
of  the  duty  and  respect  you  owe  me  and  our  friends 
to  scoff  at  my  suggestions,  and  absent  yourself  from 
their  society,  whenever  the  whim  seizes  you,  I  am 
dumb.  But  I  should  have  hoped  that  the  recollection 
that  I  am  your  mother,  and  what  are  your  obligations 
to  your  brother-in-law  and  your  sister  might  have 
some  weight.  I  have  been  long  aware,  however,  that 
my  ideas  are  obsolete  according  to  your  code.  I  am 
behind  the  age  in  which  you  live,  and — excuse  me 
for  saying  that  I  do  not  regret  this." 

"  You  may  notice  it  when  you  will " — Mrs.  Row 
land  had  boasted  repeatedly  to  her  other  daughters 
— "  strong  as  Euphemia's  will  is,  she  invariably  gives 
way  when  I  assert  my  authority.  Your  poor  father 
did  just  the  same." 

The  present  instance  bore  her  out  in  the  declaration 
that  she  could  master  the  stubborn  spirit  of  her  third 
daughter. 

"I  shall  be  in  the  parlor  in  a  few  minutes, 
mother,"  she  observed,  quietly.  She  looked  back 
over  her  shoulder,  in  quitting  the  room,  to  inquire, 
"Where  is  Bertie,  Olive?" 


32 


PHEMIKS  TEMPTATION. 


"  Miss  Darcy  took  him  with  her  to  her  night-class. 
He  is  to  act  as  monitor,  or  something  of  the  sort." 

Phemie's  eyes  sparkled.  "  Miss  Darcy  is  more  than 
kind !  The  time  will  come  when  we  shall  be  very 
proud  of  our  brother,  Olive!" 


CHAPTER  II. 

•F  Phemie's   eves    had  brightened    at    Miss 

«/  CD 

Darcy's  name,  Mr.  Mandell's  had  grown 
severe,  when  he  heard  it  mentioned.  His 
were  not  expressive  eyes  as  a  usual  thing, 
being  slaty-gray  in  hue,  and  protuberant  in 
shape,  although  small;  very  like  in  color,  size,  and 
general  appearance,  to  a  couple  of  new  and  cheap 
marbles — not  the  more  choice  agate  and  porcelain 
"  alley  taws." 

Emily  Rowland  was  reckoned  by  her  mother  and 
the  wise  ones  of  her  acquaintance,  to  have  done  well 
in  her  marriage.  She  certainly  had  not  been  led 
into  the  connection  by  the  desire  of  the  eye.  Her 
Seth  was  tall  and  angular ;  sallow  in  complexion  ; 
with  high  shoulders  and  cheek-bones,  and^  joints 
that  played  too  loosely  for  grace  when  he  moved  or 
walked.  Business  was  the  chief  idea  of  his  life ; 
common  sense  was  his  foible.  Whatever  did  not 
subserve  the  interests  of  the  first  and  tally  with  the 
requirements  of  the  latter,  was  swept  into  the  uncon- 
sidered  background  of  "  stuff  and  folly."  The  world 
is  overstocked  with  these  zealous  scavengers,  who 

2* 


.  34  PHEMIE'S  TEMPTATION. 

descry  mould  and  rot  in  everything  that  is  not  brick, 
stone,  or  metal. 

"  Miss  Darcy  has  taken  to  patronizing  Albert,  too, 
has  she?"  he  said,  when  Mrs.  Rowland  accounted 
for  the  boy's  absence  from  the  family  group,  as  Olive 
had  done  to  her  sister.  "  I  had  hoped  she  would 
expend  her  energies  in  that  line  upon  Euphemia.  It 
is  not  my  province  to  interfere  in  your  domestic 
arrangements,  Mrs.  Rowland,  but  "you  will  excuse 
me  for  doubting  the  beneficial  effects  of  this  strong- 
minded  woman's  influence  over  either  of  your  chil 
dren.  She  is  a  fanatical  radical.  Perhaps  you  may 
not  be  aware  that  she  advocates  the  equality  of  the 
sexes.  That  is  her  latest  crotchet." 

"  I  lament  Euphemia's  intimacy  with  her  as  much 
as  you  can,  Seth,"  sighed  the  mother.  "  It  can  lead 
to  no  good  end.  But  I  cannot  hinder  it." 

"  Miss  Darcy  has  been  very  kind  to  Phemie — to 
us  all ! " 

Charlotte  broke  off  her  conversation  with  Joe  Bon- 
ney,  who- was  straining  his  ears  to  catch  some  portion 
of  the  talk  between  his  cousin  and  the  lady  of  the 
house,  the  sound  of  Euphemia's  name  having  reach 
ed  them  across  the  room.  The  eldest  single  sister 
was  a  woman  of  twenty-five,  of  sickly  aspect,  who 
might  easily  have  been  mistaken  for  thirty.  Two 
years  in  the  harness  of  a  ward  school  had  robbed  her 
of  good  looks  and  spirits.  She  was  a  paid  drudge  in 
the  vineyard  of  tender  minds  and  young  ideas,  and 
had  no  hope  of  ever  being  anything  more.  Being 
conscientious,  she  did  her  utmost  to  satisfy  her  em- 


PREMIERS  TEMPTATION.  35 

ployers.  Not  being  ambitious,  she  did  as  she  was 
told ;  walked  meekly  in  the  treadmill,  living  by  the 
day  in  a  round  where  one  day  was  like  all  the  rest — 
in  term  time.  Being  only  flesh  and  blood,  and  that 
not  of  the  stoutest  quality,  she  broke  down  in  health 
with  unfailing  regularity  by  the  beginning  of  every 
vacation,  and  was  good  for  nothing  for  two  months. 
Being  a  woman,  she  must  have  an  object  of  worship, 
and  she  made  an  idol  of  Euphemia.  Therefore,  it 
was  her  gentle  voice  that  interrupted  her  mother  in 
defence  of  Phemie's  friend. 

"I  shall  never  forget  her  goodness  to  me,  last  sum 
mer,"  she  continued.  "  I  think  I  should  have  died, 
had  she  not  taken  me  with  her  to  her  native  place — 
one  of  the  nicest  old-fashioned  farm-houses  in  the 
world — and  kept  me  there  four  weeks.  She  would 
have  preferred  Phemie  as  a  companion,  I  know,  but 
she  never  intimated  as  much  to  me  by  word  or  look." 

"  I'll  guarantee  you  were  a  less  profitable  boarder, 
even  in  the  country,  than  Euphemia  would  have 
been,"  said  Seth,  with  the  wooden  chuckle  that  was 
his  nearest  approach  to  a  laugh.  "  Her  keep  would 
have  cost  next  to  nothing  where  milk,  apple-sauce, 
vegetables,  brown  bread  and  butter  are  plenty,  as  they 
are  on  a  farm." 

"I  wasn't  a  boarder!"  replied  Charlotte,  flushing 
slightly.  "  1  was  Miss  Darcy's  guest,  and  she  was 
her  brother's.  They  all  loved  her  dearly  at  the 
homestead.  They  could  not  help  it.  Miss  Darcy  is 
always  busy  helping  others  and  making  them  happy." 

"  She  would  make  me  happier  if  she  would  dress 


36  PREMIE'S  TEMPTATION. 

more  like  other  people,"  said  Joe  Bonney,  lamely 
facetious,  \vhereat  his  cousins  applauded,  and  Mrs. 
Rowland  was  encouraged  to  renew  her  plaints. 

"  I  often  say  as  much  to  Euphemia,  Mr.  Bonney. 
Miss  Darcy  has  estimable  traits,  as  we  all  allow,  but 
her  peculiarities  are  really  very  offensive  to  a  refined 
taste.  What  a  young,  and — I  may  be  allowed  to  say 
in  present  company — not  unattractive  girl  like  our 
dear  Euphemia  can  find  in  her  to  admire  and  imitate, 
I  cannot  divine.  I  have  always  been  instructed  to 
consider  dress  a  criterion  of  character.  I  appeal  to 
every  person  of  judgment  to  know  whether  a  woman 
who  wears  garments  of  such  material  and  make  as 
Miss  Darcy's,  can  be  supposed  to  possess  a  well-regu 
lated  mind." 

"  She  is  a  fine  scholar,  and  the  most  interesting 
talker  I  ever  listened  to.  Everybody  acknowledges 
her  abilities,"  said  Charlotte.  "  And  " — suggestively 
at  Mr.  Bonney — "  whoever  would  keep  in  favor  with 
Phemie  had  better  not  find  fault  with  her  favorite." 

Joe  was  crestfallen.  The  exultation  that  had 
warmed  him  in  the  consciousness  of  having  said  a 
witty  thing,  sank  into  abject  dread  lest  Charlotte 
should  report  his  attempt  to  cast  ridicule  upon  her 
friend,  to  her  sister.  He  had  not  revived  when 
Phemie  came  in.  Her  evening  toilet  was  a  black 
alpaca,  linen  collar  and  cuffs,  and  a  knot  of  cherry 
ribbon  at  her  throat.  Her  abundant  hair  had  been 
rebrushed ;  her  cheeks  were  like  nectarines,  and  her 
eyes  were  twin-stars.  Poor  Joe  caught  a  strangling 
breath  in  the  intoxication  that  straightway  overtook 


PIIEMIE'S  TEMPTATION.  37 

him;  sheepisliness  ensuing  as  an  inevitable  conse 
quence.  She  could  not  have  looked  more  queenly  in 
the  fictitious  purple  velvet.  If  Joe  could  have  had 
his  wav — this  was  the  tenor,  not  the  wording:  of  his 

•/  7  O 

reverie,  as  he  sat  in  his  corner  and  watched  her — the 
dingy  little  parlor,  with  six  cane-seat  chairs,  one 
clumsy  sofa,  two  tables,  and  the  piano— relic  of  their 
departed  state,  that  made  the  rest  of  the  furniture 
look  poorer  and  meaner  than  it  would  have  done  in 
its  absence — the  shabby  carpet  and  muslin  window- 
shades  —  all  her  unbecoming  surroundings  should 
know  her  no  more,  save  as  a  visitor. 

In  place  of  them  she  should  have  a  pretty  house  in 
a  pleasant  street,  two  parlors  and  a  dining-room,  with 
a  hall  on  the  first  floor ;  two  chambers  and  a  bath 
room  above,  with  a  snug  attic  bedroom  for  the 
servant ;  three  marble  steps  outside  the  front  door, 
cleaned  every  morning  by  said  servant ;  and  inside, 
graceful,  yet  substantial  furniture,  and  no  end  of 
books.  He  had  pictured  it  to  himself  a  thousand 
times,  together  with  the  two  silk,  two  merino,  one 
grenadine,  one  poplin,  and  two  lawn  dresses  she 
should  have  per  annum,  not  to  mention  delaines  and 
calicoes  for  common  wear.  He  was  the  junior  part 
ner  in  a  retail  dry-goods  store,  and  had  opportunities 
of  becoming  acquainted  with  woman's  needs  in  the 
matter  of  outer  garments.  The  habit  he  had  con 
tracted  of  falling  into  long  and  deep  reveries  over 
sheeny  amber,  or  garnet  silks,  warm  brown  and 
maroon  cashmeres,  diaphanous  muslins,  where  clear 
white  was  relieved  by  a  bunch  of  golden  and  green 


38  PHEMIE'S  TEMPTATION. 

wheat,  or  a  moss  rosebud,  or  a  scarlet  geranium,  was 
attributable  solely  to  his  consuming  passion  for  the 
brunette  beauty.  He  had  manoeuvred  a  whole 
month  to  discover  the  number  of  Phemie's  gloves, 
and  sent  her,  on  Valentine's-day,  which  fell  on  the 
Tuesday  preceding  this  call,  a  neat  box,  white  and 
gilt,  containing  six  pairs  of  gloves,  selected  with  a 
judicious  eye  to  her  complexion.  The  gift  being 
anonymous,  it  might  or  might  not  be  spoken  of  dur 
ing  his  present  visit,  and  this  uncertainty  added  to 
his  perturbation.  He  was  in  an  agony  lest  she 
should  pass  over  the  incident  in  disdainful  silence, 
in  which  event  he  would  be  morally  sure  she  suspect 
ed  who  the  donor  was,  and  meant  that  he  should 
comprehend  the  import  of  the  slight.  On  the  other 
hand,  he  confessed  to  himself  that  he  should  be  ready 
to  expire  in  the  tor-ments  of  bashfulness  at  the  re 
motest  approach  on  her  part  to  the  acknowledgment 
of  his  generosity.  An-  inconsistent,  yet  altogether 
natural  frame  of  mind,  and  one  with  which  young 
ladies  who  have  timid,  but  adoring  lovers,  have  fre 
quently  to  deal. 

Phemie's  greeting  to  her  married  sister  was  kindly. 
"  There  is  no  harm  in  Em,"  she  was  wont  to  say  to 
Charlotte,  "  and  very  little  of  anything  else.  She  is 
Seth's  echo,  and,  as  such,  makes  herself  disagreeable 
at  times ;  but  Em  proper  means  well  enough.  Her 
staples  of  conversation,  when  she  leaves  Seth's  lead, 
are  slightly  tiresome,  but  innocent.  One  wearies, 
at  the  dozenth  hearing,  of  being  told  how  much 
she  paid  for  her  last  dress,  hat,  and  cloak;  how 


PIIEMIE'S  TEMPTATION.  39 

Sethy  tumbled  down  stairs  before  lie  was  a  year 
old,  and  Mamie  swallowed  a  pin  last  week,  and 
how  Rowley  •  cut  stomach  and  eye  teeth  at  the 
same  time ;  but  she  never  guesses  this,  so  no  harm  is 
done." 

"  Well,  Em  !  "  she  said,  walking  first  up  to  her  at 
her  entrance. 

"  How  are  you,  Phemie? "  answered  Mrs.  Mandell, 
and  the  conventional  kiss  was  exchanged — a  caress 
gone  through  with  by  the  younger  mainly  because 
her  mother  was  by,  and  would  have  deplored  the 
omission  of  it. 

Phemie  next  put  four  passive  fingers  into  her 
brother-in-law's  hand,  that  felt  like  that  of  a  kid 
doll — as  non-pulsative  and  as  stiff'  in  the  knuckles. 
'•  Good-evening,  Seth !" 

Then  she  bowed  to  Mr.  Bonney — a  curious  cour 
tesy,  that  carried  her  further  away  from,  not  toward 
him.  She  looked  civilly  bored  by  the  whole  opera 
tion,  and  Emily  remarked  upon  this  by  the  time  she 
was  seated  in  a  straight-backed  chair,  her  hands  in 
her  lap,  as  well-trained  children  are  taught  to  bestow 
themselves  "  in  company." 

"  You  seem  to  be  tired,  Phemie !  How  happened 
you  to  be  so  late  getting  home  ?  We  were  afraid 
something  had  happened." 

"  Something  did  happen  !  "  In  her  acute  sense  of 
the  ridiculous,  Phemie  could  not  help  emphasizing 
the  convenient  word.  "  We  have  had  a  busy  day  in 
the  store,  and  I  stayed  awhile  after  the  rest  had  gone 
to  straighten  up  my  books." 


40  PREMIE'S  TEMPTATION. 

"You  shouldn't  let  them  get  crooked,"  said  the 
oracular  Seth.  "  Keep  ahead  of  your  work.  Drive 
it,  and  it  will  never  drive  you.  Those  are  two  capi 
tal  rules — rules  that  will  effectually  do  away  with 
the  necessity  of  working  in  over  hours.  Unless  " — 
as  a  prudent  after-thought — "  you  are  paid  extra  for 
so  doing.  That  alters  the  case  entirely." 

"  Mr.  Arnold  ought  to  remunerate  you  for  labor 
done  after  the  store  is  closed,"  remarked  Emily. 

"  That  is  what  I  tell  her,  my  love,"  said  Mrs. 
Rowland,  plaintively.  "  But  Phemie  turns  a  deaf 
ear  to  my  persuasions.  I  was  never  conversant  with 
business  affairs  until  lately,  but  my  common  sense — 
and  I  believe  even- my  daughters  admit  that  I  have 
common  sense — assures  me  that  it  is  unjust  for  Phe 
mie  to  stay  in  that  store,  for  an  hour  or  more,  alone, 
figuring  away  at  Mr.  Arnold's  accounts,  without  re 
ceiving  some  compensation  for  it.  And  now,  my 
child,  you  hear  that  your  brother  Seth  corroborates 
your  silly  mother's  decision." 

Seth  changed  his  base.  "  I  wouldn't  advise  you 
to  demand  il,"  he  said  wisely.  "  You  are  fortunate 
in  being  able  to  retain  your  place  at  all,  while  so 
many  are  out  of  work.  Employers  have  the  whip- 
hand  in  these  times.  Eh,  Joe  ?  "  with  a  complacent 
sense  of  not  being  an  employe. 

"  That's  so !  "  responded  Joe,  reddening  to  the  roots 
of  his  sandy  hair,  his  sheepishness  and  the  effort  to 
conceal  it  giving  a  swaggering  stress  to  his  affirma 
tion  he  never  intended  should  distinguish  it. 

Phemie  looked  at  him   fixedly  for  perhaps  thirty 


PHEMIE'S  TEMPTATION.  41 

seconds,  during  winch  purgatorial  infliction  his  skin 
passed  from  the  shade  of  a  blush  to  that  of  a  cabbage- 
rose,  and  his  bony  fingers  intertwisted  like  straggling 
grape-vines.  If  he  had  read  Mrs.  Partington's  say 
ings,  he  would  have  recalled,  and  appreciated  to  the 
full,  her  dolorously  comic  lament  that  she  u  never 
opened  her  mouth  without  putting  her  foot  into  it." 
He  had  said  something  awkward,  maybe  wrong;  at 
all  events,  something  that  did  not  accord  with  his 
divinity's  ideas  of  the  correct  and  gentlemanly.  He 
had  a  horrible  impression  that  she  had  reckoned  him 
up  and  written  a  deficit  at  the  bottom  of  the  column, 
when  she  quietly  withdrew  her  lamping  eyes  from 
him,  and  rested  them  upon  her  demure  hands,  with 
out  answer  to  any  of  the  four  observations  last 
recorded. 

"  She  has  such  a  way  of  finishing  a  fellow  up  !  " 
Joe  had  said,  the  previous  Sunday  evening,  to  his 
cousin-in-law  Emily,  who  played  the  part  of  mother- 
confessor  to  his  penchant  for  her  sister.  "  She  puts 
me  off  without  saying  a  word — well,  a  hundred  mil 
lion  miles  is  a  circumstance  to  the  gulf  her  eyes  dig 
between  us."  He  mentally  multiplied  the  distance 
by  ten,  after  the  above  luckless  speech  and  her  grave 
survey  of  him.  Emily  saw  his  embarrassment,  igno 
rant  of  what  had  caused  it.  She  was  one  of  the 
tactless  people  who  are  forever  " doing  their  best" 
to  rectify  mistakes  and  set  uncomfortable  people  at 
their  ease. 

"  Mamie  sent  her  love  to  you,  Phemie,"  she  has 
tened  to  say.  "  She  and  Rowley  told  me  not  to 


42  PHEMIE'S  TEMPTATION. 

forget  to  tell  you  about  their  valentines.  They 
each  got  one.  Did  you  girls  receive  any  ?  " 

"  I  did  not !  "  answered  Charlotte,  carelessly. 

"  Don't  offend  us  by  asking  such  a  question," 
added  Phemie.  "  "With  sensible,  grown-up  people, 
the  custom  of  sending  valentines  has  fallen  into 
disuse.  Yery  properly,  too — but  it  does  well  enough 
for  children !  " 

"  Some  very  sensible  people  keep  it  up."  Emily 
was  not  quite  put  down. 

"  Ah  !  "  Phemie  smiled,  languidly.  "  I  don't 
happen  to  know  of  any  such  instances  of  puerility 
among  that  class.  I  thought  the  practice  was  con 
fined  entirely  to  the  nursery  and  the  kitchen.  I  re 
member  well  the  prevalent  features  of  those  ex 
changed  by  Patrick  and  Bridget.  I  used  to  ferret 
them  out  of  the  dresser-drawers  when  I  was  a  little 
girl.  There  were  Cupids,  and  hearts,  and  roses, 
and  altar  fires  done  in  red  and  pink ;  and  tunics 
and  ribbons,  and  quivers,  and  forget-me-nots  done  in 
blue — all  plentifully  begreased  by  the  time  they 
fell  into  my  clutches.  These  were  upon  the  outer 
page,  and  upon  the  inner  were  transcribed,  in  very 
ill  penmanship  and  worse  spelling,  the  orthodox:  — 

"  'The  fourteenth  day  of  February, 
It  was  my  lot  for  to  be  merry, 
Lots  we  cast,  and  lots  we  drew, 
Sweet  '— 

pronounced  in  the  reading,  '  swate.' 

'  Fortune  said  it  must  be  you.'  "  « 


PREMIER  TEMPTATION.  43 

Emily  gave  up  the  attempt  to  win  for  her  client's 
votive  offering  the  compensation  of  a  pleased  or 
grateful  word  from  the  recipient,  while  Joe,  in 
alternate  hot  and  chill  fits  of  shivering,  would  un 
questionably  have  disclaimed  the  deed  had  it  been 
charged  upon  him.  It  was  evident  to  Emily  that 
her  mother  had  not  been  apprised  of  the  arrival  of 
the  gloves,  also,  that  Charlotte  had.  The  signs  of 
the  times  were  unpropitious  to  the  success  of  Joe's 
suit.  Was  Phemie  an  arrant  simpleton  ? 

"  After  the  sacrifices  Seth  and  I  are  willing  to 
make  to  insure  her  happiness  !  "  meditated  *Joe's 
ally,  in  grieved  resentment. 

The  pattern  pair  had  arranged  the  affair  in  their 
conjugal  conferences,  and  agreed  that  it  could  not 
be  done  in  superior  style  by  the  most  diplomatic  of 
match-makers.  Phemie  would  never  have  a  more 
eligible  offer  than  Joe's.  He  was  a  shrewd  man 
of  business,  industrious,  economical,  and  amiable. 
There  was  a  reasonable  chance  of  his  becoming  a 

O 

man  of  wealth  in  a  decade  or  two.  At  least,  he 
would  be  a  safe  and  permanent  investment,  which 
was  more  than  could  be  said  for  her  clerkship. 
Phemie  had  some  absurd  ideas  about  learned  women 
and  intellectual  affinities,  but  she  would  drop  them 
when  she  knew  more  of  the  world.  She  must  be 
made  to  see  that  she  could  not  look  higher  socially. 
Men  of  means  and  education  did  not  marry  girls 
who  stood  behind  counters  and  cast  up  accounts  for 
a  living.  If  she  married  Joe,  she  must  take  Olive 
to  live  with  her.  Then,  they  would  not  need  to 


44:  PHEMIE'S  TEMPTATION. 

keep  a  servant,  Olive  being  strong,  capable,  and  an 
adept  iii  all  descriptions  of  house-work.  If  Joe 
doubted  his  ability  to  maintain  both  sisters,  Olive 
could  take  in  sewing  privately,  and  Phemie  save 
him  many  a  dollar  by  her  skill  in  writing  up  books. 
There  were  always  odd  jobs  of  that  kind  to  be  had. 
Mrs.  Rowland  was  to  come  to  the  Mandells. 

"  She  would  help  me  famously  about  the  children 
and  with  my  sewing.  I  shouldn't  hire  a  seamstress 
cither  fall  or  spring  then,"  said  Emily. 

Albert  would  board  with  them  and  pay  for  food 
and  -lodgings  by  his  services  in  Seth's  store.  '  Char 
lotte  was  already  earning  enough  to  meet  her  ex 
penses  in  a  cheap  lodging-house.  Could  anything 
be  more  neatly  laid  out  ? 

"  It  would  be  better  and  safer  for  me,  in  the  long 
run,"  Seth  determined.  "  They  are  getting  along 
comfortably  enough  just  now,  but  I  live  in  constant 
dread  lest  they  should  come  back  upon  my  hands. 
I  have  never  approved  of  their  keeping  house. 
These  joint  stock  family  companies  are  risky  ven 
tures.  If  Joe  wants  Phemie,  he  must  divide  the 
burden  with  me." 

"  That  is  fair,  I  am  sure !  "  acquiesced  his  wife. 

She  was  sincere  in  saying  it,  and  it  was  hard  that 
their  benevolent  designs  should  be  frustrated  by  the 
insubordinate  Phemie. 

"  I  should  like  to  know  what  she  will  do  with  the 
gloves,"  thought  the  thrifty  woman.  "  They  are 
too  large  for  Charlotte  and  too  small  for  Olive.  She 
can't  give  them  to  her  sisters,  and  if  she  wears  them, 


PREMIE'S  TEMPTATION.  45 

she  encourages  Joe.  I  shall  watch  to  see  how  she 
will  get  out  of  the  scrape." 

Phemie  had  disposed  of  the  matter  by  tucking  the 
box  of  gloves  into  a  drawer  she  seldom  used,  with  a 
vehement  asseveration  that  she  would  never  look  at 
them  with  a  thought  of  using  them.  She  had  recog 
nized  Joe  Bonney's  handwriting  in  the  superscrip 
tion  upon  the  wrapper,  and  resented  the  loverly 
attention. 

"  I  am  poor,  but  not  mean  enough  to  accept  a 
pin's  worth  of  wearing-apparel  from  a  man  whom  I 
would  not  marry  to  save  myself  from  the  alms- 
house!"  she  said  to  Charlotte,  who  had  met  the 
bearer  of  the  valentine  at  the  door,  and  taken  the 
box  directed  to  her  sister.  "He  noticed  my  un 
gloved  hands  the  cold  Sabbath  he  walked  with  us 
from  church.  I  saw  him  look  at  them  when  I  un 
wrapped  my  shawl  from  about  them,  that  I  might 
take  out  my  pass-key.  This  is  his  delicate  manner 
of  expressing  his  appreciation  of  my  inability  to  buy 
a  new  pair.  His  next  essay  will  be  a  silk  hat  and 
feathers,  or  a  pair  of  new  shoes.  My  Balmoral  boots 
are  getting  shockingly  shabby  at  the  toes." 

Her  self-respect  was  stung  smartly.  Had  modest, 
doting  Joe  slapped  her  in  the  face,  the  insult  would 
not  have  seemed  more  dire.  It  was,  as  she  inter 
preted  it,  the  initial  step  to  the  purchase  she  saw 
was  determined  upon  by  the  Mandells  and  their 
kinsman ;  a  transaction  akin  to  the  custom  of  pay 
ing  down  a  small  sum  as  soon  as  a  bargain  is  con 
cluded  upon,  to  clench  the  contract.  She  had  rubbed 


46  PREMIER  TEMPTATION. 

against  some  sharp  angles  in  life  since  her  nineteenth 
year,  but  the  friction  had  stimulated,  not  chastened 
her.  Too  proud  to  be  vain,  she  had  yet  a  fair  esti 
mate  of  her  mental  powers  and  her  personal  advan 
tages.  Experience  had  taught  her  independence  of 
will  and  energy  in  action,  and  rather  more  confi 
dence  in  herself  than  would  have  beseemed  one  who 
had  not  proved  her  armor.  She  looked  down  upon 
her  suitor  as  the  eaglet,  referred  to  some  pages  back, 
would  upon  a  barn-yard  cockerel,  and  I  am  not  pre 
pared  to  say  that  she  erred  in  this,  even  taking  into 
account  the  circumstance  that  his  was  the  lordlier 
sex. 

Seth,  irritated  at  what  he  inwardly  condemned  as 
"  ungrateful  effrontery."  yet  dubious  as  to  the  expe 
diency  of  pushing  further  in  a  direction  in  which  his 
wife  had  been  signally  routed,  tried  another  mode 
of  annoying  Phemie — punishing  her,  as  he  called  it. 

"What  is  the  nature  of  the  entertainment  to  which 
your  friend,  Miss  Darcy,  has  invited  Albert?"  he 
asked.  "  He  is  young  to  attend  evening  parties." 

"  I  was  not  at  home  when  the  invitation  arrived," 
answered  Phemie,  indifferently.  "  Charlotte  can  tell 
you  more  about  the  matter  than  I  can." 

Charlotte,  whose  sweet  temper  was  proof  even 
against  Seth's  worrying  inquiries  and  officious  pro 
tection,  explained  readily  and  patiently  that  Miss 
Darcy,  with  some  other  philanthropic  persons — both 
ladies  and  gentlemen — had  established  an  evening 
class  of  young  people,  chiefly  members  of  the  senior 
classes  and  graduates  of  the  public  schools,  who  de- 


PREMIERS  TEMPTATION.  47 

sired  more  extensive  information  upon  certain  scien 
tific  subjects  than  they  could  obtain  at  these  institu 
tions.  A  large  room  had  been  hired  and  fitted  up 
with  seats  for  the  pupils  and  a  platform  for  the  lec 
turer,  and  in  this  there  were  delivered,  three  times  a 
week,  familiar  discourses  upon  Astronomy,  Geology, 
Natural  Philosophy  and  Chemistry,  illustrated  by 
diagrams  and  experiments. 

"Albert  has  been  studying  chemistry  with  Miss 
Darcy  and  Phemie  for  more  than  a  year,"  said  the 
proud  sister,  "  and  has  made  such  progress  that  Miss 
Darcy  called  for  him  this  evening  to  act  as  her  as 
sistant  in  the  experiments  that  are  to  illustrate  her 
lesson." 

The  last  word  was  judiciously  chosen,  but  it  did 
not  divert  Seth  from  the  scent  of  a  fresh  abomination 
to  nostrils  refined  after  the  pattern  of  his  forefathers. 

"You  don't  mean  to  say  that  she  teaches  the  motley 
crowd  of  males  and  females  herself — makes' a  "speech 
from  the  platform  ? " 

"  She  teaches  the  class  when  her  night  comes 
around,"  was  Charlotte's  amendment,  uttered  rather 
nervously. 

"  Are  there  other  females  who  do  the  same  ? " 

"  Most  of  the  lecturers  are  gentlemen,  I  believe. 
Few  women  are  competent  to  give  instruction  on 
the  topics  which  are  chosen  on  these  occasions." 

"  I  am  glad  to  hear  it — very  glad ! "  ejadhlated 
Seth,  thrusting  one  hand  into  his  breeches  pocket 
and  stretching  his  legs  very/  far  out  on  the  carpet, 
leaving  a  triangular  space  between  his  spine  and  the 


48  PHEXIE'S  TEMPTATION. 

back  and  scat  of  his  chair,  in   which  a  good-sized 
pillow  could  have  been  inserted. 

This  was  his  oratorical  attitude,  and  Phemie's 
fingers  pinched  one  another  very  tightly  in  anticipa 
tion  of  a  harangue. 

"  It  is  a  comfort  to  learn,"  he  pursued,  "that  the 
females  of  America  are  still  true  to  their  sex  ;  still 
cherish  some  symptoms  of  virtuous  modesty ;  still 
cultivate  domestic  habits  and  principles,  and  shrink 
from  public  life ;  from  scenes  in  which  their  morals 
must  be  corrupted,  their  manners  masculinized  " — 

"  The  latter  result  would  be  a  degradation ! "  in 
terpolated  Phemie,  with  a  politely-suppressed  yawn. 
"  That  is,  if  your  reference  is  to  the  human  species. 
You  did  not  state  expressly  what  kind  of  males  and 
females  you  were  talking  about.  The  terms  are 
very  indefinite.  As  to  Miss  Darcy,  she  can  take  care 
of  herself — and  she  does  it." 

"  Come !  come  ! "  said  Emily,  alarmed  lest  Joe 
should  be  frightened  from  the  chase  by  the  "  gamey  " 
propensities  of  his  quarry,  and  aware  that  Seth 
would  come  off  second-best  in  a  wordy  war.  Not 
that  he  did  not  carry  the  heaviest  guns,  but  Phemie 
was  so  quick  and  audacious  ! 

"  You  two  are  always  sparring ! "  she  said,  lightly. 
"  Suppose  you  talk  of  something  more  interesting  to 
the  rest  of  us  than  Miss  Darcy  and  her  pranks." 

"  She  doesn't  play  pranks,  and  you  could  hardly 
find  a  theme  more  interesting  to  me  than  the  story 
of  her  brave  and  good  deeds,"  returned  Phemie. 
"  But  I  don't  want  to  talk  about  her  just  now." 


- 

PHEMIE'S  TEMPTATION.  49 

The  words  were  on  her  lips  when  the  door-bell 

;  A 

rang  violently  once,  and  yet  again,  before  Olive  could 
ascend  the  basement  steps.  Seth  answered  the 
peremptory  summons,  Olive  halting  at  the  other  end 
of  the  passage,  and  Mrs.  Rowland  following  her  son- 
in-law  to  the  threshold  of  the  parlor  to  discover  the 
cause  of  the  commotion. 

Two  gentlemen  were  there,  supporting  between 
them  a  lad  whose  face  was  bloody  and  besmirched 
with  soot  or  smoke,  a  white  handherchief  binding 
his  eyes,  while  behind  them  on  the  porch,  before 
them  when  they  entered  the  hall,  pressed  a  figure 
well  known  to  the  terrified  family. 

"  It  was  an  accident,  Mrs.  Rowland — an  explosion 
— and  he  had  just  bent  over  the  vessel  to  make 
sure  all  was  right.  His  face  is  scorched — that  is  all. 
He  bears  it  like  a  hero.  I  brought  a  doctor  along. 
I  knew  you  would  wish  it,"  said  Miss  Darcy,  in  less 
time  than  any  other  woman  could  have  said  the  same 
number  of  words,  yet  without  bustle  or  apparent  agita 
tion.  "If  you  will  be  so  kind  as  to  clear  the  room, 
friends,  it  will  -be  better  for  him,"  she  continued, 
ushering  the  gentlemen  and  their  charge  into  the 
parlor.  "  No,  my  dear  lady !  "  when  Mrs.  Rowland 
would  have  rushed  toward  her  son  with  hysterical 
effusion.  "  That  is  the  worst  thing  you  could  do. 
Olive  !  Charlotte !  take  care  of  your  mother !  Euphe- 
mia  !  I  want  you  !  " 

She  rid  the  room  of  useless  attendants  by  a  sweep 
ing  gesture  of  her  resolute  arm,  before  which  Joe, 
Seth,  and  Emily  vanished  as  though  they  had  not 
3 


50  PHEMIE'8  TEMPTATION. 

been,  and  shut  the  door.  Albert  was  laid  upon  the 
sofa.  He  had  not  groaned  or  spoken  since  his  arri 
val  at  home,  until  the  surgeon  removed  the  handker 
chief  from  his  eyes.  Then,  an  exclamation  escaped 
him,  so  fraught  with  pain  that  his  sister  trembled 
violently  as  she  stood  at  his  head. 

"  Be  a  woman,  Phemie ! "  ordered  her  friend, 
tersely.  "  You  were  the  first  person  he  thought 
of."  ' 

The  gentleman  who  li^d  withdrawn  to  the  rear  of 
the  group  about  the  sofa,  eyed  the  girl  curiously  at 
this  speech.  -  She  controlled  herself  marvellously, 
even  to  the  lips  that  had  quivered  the  instant  before, 
but  the  eyes  were  dark  and  dilate,  the  cheeks  ashy, 
when  the  boy's  groping  fingers  caught  her  dress  and 
he  tried  to  speak  cheerfully. 

"Never  rnind,  Phemie,  darling!  I'll  come  around 
all  right,  presently.  Stay  with  rne !  I  won't  play 
the  baby  again  !  " 

He  was  a  handsome  youth  of  sixteen,  very  like 
Euphemia  in  feature,  but  fairer  in  complexion,  and 
differing  likewise  from  her  in  the  sjenderness  and 
fragility  which  had  resulted  from  his  rapid  growth. 
His  forehead  was  burned,  but  not  deeply ;  the  lower 
part  of  his  face  was  begrimed  with  smoke ;  there 
was  a  cut  in  his  cheek  from  which  the  doctor  extract 
ed  a  piece  of  glass — slight  injuries  all,  that  hardly 
required  surgical  care.  The  eyes  had  suffered  most. 
The  lashes  were  scorched  off;  the  lids,  puffed  and 
raw,  shrank  from  the  light  pressure  of  the  fingers 
that  yet  forced  them  open. 


PREMIERS  TEMPTATION.  51 

"  It  must  be  done,  my  boy ! "  accompanied  the 
act. 

The  lad  clung  to  his  sister's  hand  while  the  exam 
ination  went  on,  mute  and  unresisting,  but  the  force 
of  the  grasp  was  an  index  to  her  of  what  he  was  en 
during  ;  her  varying  color  and  strained  gaze  upon 
the  surgeon's  movements  proof  to  the  two  lookers-on 
of  her  knowledge  of  and  sympathy  with  his  anguish. 
The  work  was  quickly  done ;  cooling  fomentations 
and  more  skilfully-adjusted  bandages  applied  to  the 
wounded  parts,  and  the  doctor  was  ready  to  depart. 

Careless  or  forgetful  of  the  presence  of  others, 
Phemie  knelt  beside  the  couch  as  the  surgeon  left  it, 
slipping  her  arm  under  the  pillow,  as  Albert  drew 
her  face  down  to  his. 

"Dear  old  girl!"  he  said  caressingly.  "The 
thing  I  liked  my  eyes  best  for  was  that  they  were 
like  yours.  They  don't  look  much  like  them  now ! " 

"  They  will  be  bright  as  ever  soon !  "  she  comforted 
him  and  herself  by  saying,  stroking  his  unwounded 
cheek. 

The  surgeon,  behind  her  back,  telegraphed  a 
mournful  contradiction  to  Miss  Darcy  and  her  com 
panion.  He  had  a  minute's  talk  with  them  upon  the 
steps  as  the  gentlemen  were  leaving.  Miss  Darcy 
meant  to  stay  all  night.  "  That  sister  is  the  main 
support  of  the  family,  you  say  ? "  he  interrogated, 
with  unprofessional  interest. 

"  She  is.  She  educates  this,  the  only  brother, 
also." 

"  He  will  have  to  finish  his  course   at  an  asylum 


52 


PHEXIE^S  TEMPTATION. 


for  the  blind,  I  fear,  if  he  receive  any  further  school 
ing.  There  is  scarcely  a  possibility  that  he  will  ever 
see  again.  The  sight  of  one  eye  has  gone — probably 
that  of  the  other." 


CHAPTEE  III. 

"WEEK  had  passed  since  Albert  received 
his  hurt.  Phemie,  coming  home  a  few  min 
utes  later  than  was  her  custom,  found  him 
already  impatient  for  her  arrival.  Intense 
pain  and  inflammation,  and  the  remedies 
used  to  lessen  these,  had  changed  him  greatly  in  seven 
days.  He  lay  on  the  bed  in  his  mother's  chamber, 
wrapped  in  a  many-flowered  dressing-gown  which 
had  been  Charlotte's  in  their  opulent  days — a  wad 
ded  silk  affair,  used  now  at  such  seasons  only  as  who 
ever  chanced  to  be  the  invalid  of  the  household  lay 
in  state,  and  these  were  brief  periods  where  each  one 
had  her  living  to  earn. 

"How  fine  we  are,  to-night!"  said  Phemie,  lay 
ing  her  cold  fingers  upon  the  scarred  forehead,  and 
stooping  to  kiss  him.  "  You  look  like  a  young 
Bashaw  with — let  me  see  how  many  tails ! "  pre 
tending  to  count  the  attenuated  palm-leaves  curling 
over  the  fabric,  like  lean  caterpillars  intent  upon 
biting  their  own  spines. 

The   boy's   wan   visage   brightened    momentarily 


54  PREMIERS   TEMPTATION. 

into  a  laugh,  but  subsided  quickly  into  the  sad  wist- 
fulness  it  was  beginning  to  wear  habitually — a  look 
it  cut  Phemie's  heart  to  see.  She  had  noted  it  many 
times  as  inseparable  from  the  countenances  of  the 
blind. 

"I  weary  more  and  more  for  you,  Phemie,  dear! 
The  day  seems  terribly,  insupportably  long  without 
you.  Mother  and  Olive  are  kindness  itself,  but  Oily 
is  busy  all  day  with  other  matters,  and  mother  is  so 
low-spirited  about  me  that  her  conversation  de 
presses,  rather  than  cheers  me.  Lottie  is  home  by 
five  o'clock,  and  does  her  part  nobly — too  well — 
for  she  is  hoarse  as  a  raven  and  quite  spent  in  breath 
by  the  time  school  is  out,  and  I  don't  like  to  ask  her 
to  read,  much  less  talk  to  me.  So,  I  lie  here  and 
think,  think,  think  !  until  my  brain  whirls." 

"  Poor  brain  ! "  Phemie  had  tossed  off  her  sacjk 
and  hat,  and  drawn  the  tired  head  to  her  shoulder, 
running  her  fingers  through  his  hair,  and  chafing 
his  temples.  "  It  ought  to  take  a  holiday.  It  has 
done  good  work  in  its  day — not  a  long  day,  either." 

The  boy  caught  her  up,  quickly  and  pathetically. 
"And  now — now  the  night  cometh,  in  which  no 
man  can  work — a  night  of  years,  Phemie  !  It  had 
better  be  the  darkness  of  the  grave  ;  I  should  burden 
nobody  there.  Oh ! " — sobs  breaking  up  the  manly 
tone  he  would  have  used  throughout  the  review  of 
his  condition — "It  was  my  fondest  hope  to  make 
for  myself  a  name  in  the  world  and  a  home  for  you. 
Now,  I  can  never  repay  you  for  what  you  have  done 
for  me — must  hang,  a  dead  weight  upon  your  hands 


PREMIERS  TEMPTATION.  55 

— you,  a  woman,  and  I  a  man !  I  wish  my  brains 
had  been  blown  out  along  with  my  eyes !  " 

"  Bertie  !  my  treasure  !  you  shall  not  talk  of  such 
dreadful  things!  Should  your  sight  never  be  re 
stored — and  mind !  I  am  not  at  all  convinced  that  it 
may  not  be  !  should  the  worst  come  to  the  worst, 
there  are  many  avenues  of  learning  and  usefulness 
open  to  the  blind.  I  have  fancied  often  that  the 
mind  works  better  in  the  dark.  You  have  noticed 
this  yourself,  dear.  Let  us  leave  the  future  to  our 
Heavenly  Father.  He  will  do  what  is  best  for  us." 

Albert  writhed  fretfully.  "  Not  that  tack,  Phemie ! 
I  broke  out  upon  mother,  to-day,  with  a  touch  of 
the  feeling  I  have  expressed  to  you,  and  she  talked 
to  me  for  an  hour  about  the  judgments  sent  upon 
people  for  their  sins,  and  about  the  fire  that  never 
dieth,  and  other  enlivening  topics  that  are  only  fit  to 
comfort  people  who  have  never  suffered,  when  they 
bemoan  their  neighbor's  misfortunes.  I  ought  to  be 
thankful  for  the  loss  of  my  eyes,  I  suppose,  as  she 
says,  but  I  am  not !  " 

"  Hush,  darling !  you  are  speaking  irreverently  of 
awful  themes !  "  He  could  not  see  the  solemn  light 
in  her  eyes,  but  the  inflections  of  her  voice  checked 
his  reckless  murmurs.  "  Our  dear  mother  is  a  good 
woman,  a  humble  Christian,  but  her  piety  is  tinctured 
with  the  melancholy  which  is  her  favorite  state  of 
mind.  I  verily  believed,  when  I  was  a  child,  that  the 
Almighty  was  not  only  indifferent,  but  even  averse 
to  my  salvation.  I  think  mother  has  never  grown 
from  under  the  shadow  of  that  idea.  Wheie^,  the 


f>0  PREMIERS   TEMPTATION. 

truth — if  His  Word  is  to  be  believed — is  that  He  is 
not  willing  that  any  should  perish.  His  loving 
'  Coine ! '  is  to  all  who  will  hear  and  accept.  Don't 
full  into  the  habit  of  suspecting  His  love  and  good 
ness,  dearest!  You  can  have  no  worse  preparation 
for  the  battle  of  Life  than  doubts  of  your  Leader,  no 
better  than  the  persuasion  that  he  chastens  reluctantly; 
that,  if  he  conducts  you  through  rough  paths,  it  is  be 
cause  they  are  safest ;  that  in  the  bright  hereafter, 
you  shall  know  the  purpose  and  bearing  of  every  step 
you  have  taken.  Else,  the  word  '  Father '  would  be 
a  misnomer.  I  am  a  wayward,  erring  child,  Bertie, 
but  in  all  my  wanderings,  I  try  to  remember  this. 
It  is  my  creed — a  meagre  one,  maybe,  but  it  helps 
me.  Having  finished  my  sermon,  I  mean  to  take 
you  down  stairs  and  give  you  your  supper,  like  a 
gentleman  of  high  degree.  Will  your  Bashawship 
be  pleased  to  lean  upon  my  shoulder,  and  accept  the 
additional  support  of  my  unworthy  arm  about  your 
august  waist  ? " 

"You  are  better  than  any  preacher  !  "  said  the  boy, 
between  a  smile  and  a  sigh.  "  If  you  were  always 
with  me,  I  should  never  complain,  I  think." 

"I  will  never  leave  you,  dear,  until  you  can  take 
care  of  yourself — except  when  duty  calls  me  from 
you  for  a  few  hours,"  Phemie  engaged,  promptly. 
"  Our  home  shall  always  be  the  same.  Here  we  are, 
at  the  top  of  the  stairs.  Do  not  be  afraid  to  step.  I 
will  not  let  you  fall." 

"Neither  Mr.  Hart  nor  Miss  Darcy  has  called,  or 
sent  to  inquire  about  me,  to-day,"  said  Albert,  when 


PHEMIE' S  TEMPTATION.  57 

he  had  eaten  his  supper,  served  up  by  Phemie  while 
the  others  ate  theirs  in  the  dining-room. 

"  That  is  not  because  they  have  not  thought  of 
you  or  do  not  like  you,"  was  the  response.  "  They 
have  been  most  attentive ;  the  kindest  of  the  many 
friends  this  accident  has  developed.  You  should  be 
very  proud  and  glad  that  such  a  host  of  people  are 
interested  in  you,  Bertie.  I  am,  for  your  sake.  Our 
matchless  Miss  Darcy  has  outdone  herself.  Did  I 
tell  you  that  she  and  I  have  had  our  first  quarrel  over 
her  determination  to  charge  herself  with  the  expen 
ses  of  your  education?  She  will  have  it  that  she 
was,  in  some  sort,  to  blame  for  the  accident." 

"She  was  not!"  interrupted  Albert.  "It  was  my 
impatience.  She  put  her  hand  on  my  shoulder  to 
pull  me  back  when  I  stooped  to  look  into  the  cruci 
ble  ;  I  felt  it,  and  heard  her  say :  '  Take  care ! ' ' 

"  I  know !  I  told  her  there  was  no  need  of  her 
assistance  in  this  case,  and  I  mean  to  have  my  way. 
But  she  has  a  great,  warm  heart,  hasn't  she  ?  And 
I  am  exceedingly  desirous  to  see  and  thank  your  Mr. 
Hart  for  his  visits  and  gifts." 

"  I  wish  you  could  ! "  She  had  foreseen  that  the 
remark  would  enliven  him.  "  You  will  like  one 
another  at  sight.  It  is  strange  you  did  not  notice 
him  the  night  I  was  hurt." 

"  I  had  eyes  only  for  you,  my  precious  boy  !  " 

Phemie  was  lavish  of  caresses  to  no  one  except  her 
brother.  She  fed  him  upon  them  and  fond  words 
now  whenever  he  was  left  to  her  nursing. 

"  He  is  one  of  Miss  Darcy's  committee,  yon  know," 
8* 


58  PHEMIE'S  TEMPTATION. 

• 

said  Albert.  "  His  voice  was  the  first  I  heard  when 
I  came  to  my  senses.  He  said :  '  My  brave  lad ! '  in 
stead  of  what  everybody  else  was  groaning  and  sigh 
ing,  'Poor  boy!'  Afterward  he  called  me, '  My  man,' 
and  'My  noble  fellow!'  I  detest  patronage;  and  he 
and  Miss  Darcy  were  the  only  persons  about  me  who 
did  not  play  the  condescending  patrons  from  the  mo 
ment  I  was  knocked  down  to  that  in  which  I  was 
put  into  the  carriage.  And  when  he  comes  to  see 
me  now,  he  talks  as  if  he  were  one  man  and  I  another. 
The  fruits  and  ices  he  has  sent  have  been  accompa 
nied  by  his  card,  as  if  he  considered  me  his  equal. 
He  is  going  to  drop  in  some  day  when  I  am  better 
and  read  to  me." 

"Maybe,  then,  you  don't  care  to  hear  me  read 
awhile  now.  instead  of  tiring  yourself  talking,"  said 
Phemie,  playfully.  "  Your  tongue  is  apt  to  run  too 
fast  when  Mr.  Hart  is  your  theme.  I  shall  grow 
jealous,  soon,  if  you  do  not  moderate  your  transports. 
To  show  that  I  am  not,  just  yet.  I  am  going  to  enter 
tain  you  with  one  of  his  books.  It  is  a  fine  thing  to 
have  a  friend  who  is  a  book-merchant,  is  it  not?  I 
wonder  if  he  needs  a  bookkeeper.  I  shall  apply  for 
the  post  when  he  does.  Here  is  my  creed  set  forth 
in  verse,  and  so  beautifully  as  to  shame  my  halting 
prose,"  she  went  on  to  say,  dropping  her  bantering 
tone  as  she  found  the  poem  she  was  seeking. 

The  volume  was  one  of  Whittier's,  and  her  selec 
tion  was  his  noble  "  Psalm."  Her  voice  was  a  mel 
low  contralto,  her  enunciation  roundly  distinct,  her 
emphasis  just  and  earnest.  Albert,  absorbed  in 


PREMIERS  TEMPTATION.  59 

listening,  as  she  was  in  reading,  heard  no  more  than 
did  she  the  slight  bustle  in  the  entry  that  should  have 
notified  them  of  the  approach  of  intruders.  It  was 
Olive  who  unclosed  the  parlor  door,  and  would  have 
interrupted  her  sister,  had  not  a  beseeching  gesture 
from  her  companion  stayed  her.  Phemie's  profile 
was  toward  them,  and  her  accents  were  slow  and  de 
vout  as  she  read  : — 

" '  All  as  God  wills  who  wisely  heeds 

To  give,  or  to  withhold, 
And  knoweth  more  of  human  needs 
Than  all  my  prayers  have  told! 

"  '  Enough  that  blessings  undeserved 
Have  marked  my  erring  track ; — 
That  wheresoe'er  my  feet  have  swerved 
His  chastening  turned  me  back.'  " 

Practical  Oily,  if.  she  had  "  noticed  particularly," 
could  have  discerned  some  difference  in  Phemie's 
manner  of  rendering  these  and  her  reading  the  penul 
timate  verse  of  the  poem.  But,  somewhat  impatient 
at  her  detention  in  the  gusty  passage,  and  embar 
rassed  at  the  silent  halt  upon  the  parlor-threshold, 
she  was  not  "noticing,"  only  wishing  "Phemie  would 
hurry  up  and  get  through."  Olive's  own  private  be 
lief  was  that  the  visitor  hesitated  to  enter  because  he 
fancied  the  brother  and  sister  were  engaged  in 
their  evening  devotions,  of  which  this  hymn  was  a 
part.  However  this  might  be,  the  gentleman  did 
"  notice,"  and  wonder  at  the  liquid  melody  of  the 
tones  that  dwelt  lovingly  upon  each  word  : — 


60  PHEMI&S  TEMPTATION. 

"  '  That  all  the  jarring  notes  of  life 

Seem  blending  in  a  psalm, 

And  all  the  angles  of  its  strife 

Sloiv  roundin'g  into  calm.'  " 

"  That  is  delicious,  Bertie  ! "  said  Pheraie,  repeat 
ing  the  last  line,  softly  and  musingly. 

"  That  is  not  poetry,  at  any  rate,"  thought  Olive. 
"  Thank  gracious  she  has  finished  the  tiresome  thing  !  " 
and  she  pushed  the  door  widely  open. 

Phemie  arose — not  in  confused  haste — but  in  quiet 
self-possession,  her  book  closed  upon  her  finger,  and 
beheld  the  stranger  who  had  acted  as  Clara  Mallory's 
escort  at  the  meeting  of  the  estranged  school-fellows. 

"  My  sister  Euphemia,  Mr.  Hart !  "  uttered  Olive, 
formally,  and  straightway  disappeared,  glad  of  the 
opportunity. 

The  guest,  having  at  his  first  visit  to  the  house 
recognized  in  the  sister  of  his  protege  the  "superb" 
bookkeeper  who  had  won  his  admiration  in  the  fancy 
store,  was  not  surprised  at  the  encounter,  and  Phemie, 
who  was,  was  helped  to  conceal  this  by  his  easy,  cor 
dial  salutation  of  her  as  the  principal  nurse  of  his 
young  favorite.  "  Who  is  looking  better  to-night !  " 
he  said,  taking  the  eager  hand  stretched  toward  him 
from  the  sofa.  "  A  judicious  course  of  Whittier  is  a 
capital  tonic,  Miss  Rowland." 

In  five  minutes  they  were  talking  together  like 
old  friends,  Albert  enjoying  the  meeting  quite  as 
much,  if  not  more  than  he  had  expected  to  do. 

Whittier's  "Psalm'.'  inevitably  suggested  Long 
fellow's  "  Psalm  of  Life,"  and  this  led  to  a  critical 


PREMIE'S  TEMPTATION.  61   * 

discussion  of  the  merits  of  the  two.  Mr.  Hart,  as  an 
admirer  of  the  Quaker  poet,  must,  perforce  in  his  zeal 
to  establish  his  merits,  take  the  volume  from  the 
young  lady  and  read  divers  choice  passages.  Phe- 
mie  thought  she  had  seldom  heard  finer  reading — 
— a  trifle  theatrical,  perhaps,  to  an  ear  unaccustomed 
to  parlor  elocutionists,  but  very  pleasing  and  striking, 
nevertheless.  They  were  at  no  loss  for  topics  of  com 
mon  interest,  when  this  one  was  dismissed.  Of  course, 
as  she  said  to  herself  afterward,  it  was  not  a  notable 
occurrence  with  him  to  meet  with  a  tolerably  intelli 
gent  girl  who  loved  poetry  and  eloquence,  and  had 
a  smattering  of  certain  sciences.  The  interview  was, 
to  him,  one  of  many.  To  her,  it  was  an  event.  Her 
intellect  thirsted  for  such  oftentimes.  One  class  of 
her  mental  powers  did  the  work  of  her  daily  life,  and 
this  was  the  more  ignoble.  Her  longings  after  loftier 
attainments  in  knowledge,  her  love  of  the  beautiful 
in  Nature,  Art,-  and  Literature,  were  nourished  se 
cretly  and  so  scantily  she  feared,  sometimes,  they 
would  perish  utterly. 

Mr.  Hart  was  unfeignedly  interested  in  the  new 
acquaintance  brought  thus  oddly  to  his  notice.  He 
had  known  scores  of  pretty  women  in  his  time,  and 
dozens  of  brilliant  talkers  who  were  seldom  pretty. 
He  had  never  before,  if  his  memory  served  him 
aright,  met  one  so  handsome  and  sprightly  as  this 
daughter  of  the  working-classes.  She  doubtless  owed 
both  sense  and  beauty  to  the  circumstance  of  her 
father's  having  been  a  gentleman,  and  herself  having 
been  born  in  a  different  sphere  from  that  which  she 


62  PREMIE'S  TEMPTATION. 

now  occupied,  but  marvellous  shares  of  resolution 
and  genuine  love  of  learning  must  have  combined  to 
urge  her  to  the  acquisition  of  that  which  she  had  evi 
dently  mastered — not  dipped  into.  Ardent,  without 
being  hasty,  thorough,  yet  not  dull,  the  workings  of 
her  mind  interested  him  and  incited  him  .to  bring 
forth  the  best  treasures  of  his.  If  these  matched 
hers  only  as  paste  simulates  the  gleam  of  the  dia 
mond,  Phemie  did  not  detect  it.  She  had  early 
been  bound  down  by  mean  and  harassing  cares,  the 
what  to  drink,  to  eat,  and  to  wear,  or,  more  truly, 
how  to  procure  the  money,  that  represented  these,  had 
been  set  for  her  consideration  when  other  girls  were 
studying,  with  a  lively  sense  of  practical  importance, 
the  phases  of  masculine  character  presented  to  them 
in  society.  Her  sketches  of  human  nature  were 
made  in  a  totally  different  school  from  that  to  which 
this  hero  of  Albert's  belonged.  The  cant  of  trade 
was  familiar  to  her  as  her  alphabet,  and  recalling  her 
father's  oft- reiterated  prognostications  of  ruin  and 
ceaseless  desires  for  wealth  during  the  latter  months 
of  his  life,  she  believed  that  all  men  talked  it.  Mr. 
Hart,  who  lived  among  books,  and  knew  live  authors, 
and  talked  about  books  of  travel,  history,  biography, 
and  poetry,  as  Mr.  Arnold  did  of  laces,  ribbons,  vel 
vets,  and  profits — was  a  new  revelation. 

Mrs.  Rowland  had  a  headache ;  Charlotte  was 
wearied  by  her  day's  work,  and  had  gone  to  bed ; 
Olive  was  busy,  to-morrow  being  baking  day.  The 
trio  in  the  parlor  were,  therefore,  uninterrupted  by 
the  introduction  of  incongruous  elements  into  their 


PHEMIE'S  TEMPTATION.  63 

harmonious  councils,  and  time  flew  faster  than  any 
of  them  had  any  idea  of. 

Mr.  Hart,  as  was  proper,  was  the  first  to  bethink 
himself  that  his  call  might  be  unreasonably  long. 
His  start  of  dismay,  when  the  nearest  church-clock 
tolled  the  hour  of  ten,  was  unfeigned,  but  it  made 
Phemie  smile,  and  was,  moreover,  very  subtle  flat 
tery  to  her  colloquial  talents. 

"  Try  to  forgive  me,  Albert !  "  begged  the  delin 
quent.  "  If  you  have  a  relapse,  I  shall  £nd  it  more 
difficult  to  get  my  own  pardon  for  my  thoughtless 
ness — my  disregard  of  your  comfort  and  health. 
Why  didn't  you  send  me  away  an  hour  and  a  half 
ago,  Miss  Eowland  ? " 

While  Albert  replied  with  hospitable  warmth  that 
the  visit  had  seemed  to  him  short  as  it  was  delight 
ful,  and  that  he  should  be  the  better,  not  the  worse 
for  it,  Phemie  took  a  good  look  at  the  tall  figure, 
bending  toward  the  recumbent  invalid.  He  was  not 
regularly  handsome,  although  she  had  thought  him, 
so,  at  the  earliest  glance.  In  stature,  he  was  com 
manding,  and  he  carried  himself  well ;  his  hair  was 
nearly,  if  not  quite,  black;  his  forehead  high,  but 
somewhat  narrow  across  the  temples ;  his  eyes  dark- 
gray,  and  bright  or  languishing  as  the  lashes  lifted 
or  drooped ;  his  mouth  was  small — too  small  for  manly 
beauty,  and  overhung  by  a  neatly-trimmed  mous 
tache,  while  the  unfortunate  effect  of  his  retreating 
chin  was  skilfully  lessened  by  the  sweeping  beard, 
which,  it  was  easy  to  see,  was  his  favorite  vanity. 
His  long  white  fingers  caressed  it  when  he  listened 


64  PHEMIE>8  TEMPTATION. 

and  when  he  laughed ;  pulled  at  it  when  he  was 
perplexed  or  deeply  thoughtful.  If  his  portrait  only 
had  been  exhibited  to  Phemie,  she  would  have  criti 
cized  sharply  the  defects  of  his  physiognomy.  Seen 
in  the  light  of  his  kindly  downward  smile  upon 
the  suffering  boy,  the  weariness  of  whose  darkened* 
hours  he  had  solaced  by  sympathy  and  genial  com 
panionship,  and  while  the  recollection  of  his  agreea 
ble  converse  was  fresh  ia  her  memory,  she  decided 
anew  that  he  was  better  than  handsome;  that  he 
had  the  unmistakable  air  of  a  well-bred  and  highly- 
cultivated  gentleman,  and  that  he  was  all  he  appeared 
to  be — and  more. 

"If  you  are  not  injured  by  my  selfish  indiscretion 
of  to-night,  you  will  let  me  come  again,  will  you 
not  ? "  he  said,  in  bidding  Albert  "  Good-night."  "  I 
shall  please  myself  by  sending  you  '  Calaynos '  to 
morrow,  Miss  Rowland.  I  don't  ask  you  to  read  it 
aloud  to  your  brother,  but  I  am  grievously  mistaken 
if  you  do  not  h'nd,  here  and  there,  passages  you  will 
be  unwilling  to  enjoy  alone.  For  your  especial 
delectation,  Albert,  I  shall  slip  into  the  package 
of  books  a  volume  of  essays — Christopher  North's. 
They  will  help  you  get  rid  of  the  long  evenings.  If 
I  can  steal  an  hour  or  two  per  week,  I  want  to  read 
certain  of  these  papers  to  you  myself.  I  shall  mark 
them  in  the  book." 

"  Isn't  he  splendid  ? "  Albert  broke  forth,  when  he 
had  gone. 

"He  is  very  pleasant."  Phemie  was  ashamed 
when  she  had  used  the  tame  phrase.  Since  she  had 


PHEMIE'S  TEMPTATION.  65 

taken  real  and  lively  pleasure  in  the  society  of  their 
new  acquaintance,  why  shouldn't  she  say  as  mucli  ? 
Mr.  Hart  was  no  more  to  her  than  an  entertaining 
man,  and  a  man  was  a  being  to  be  discussed  as  freely 
as  any  other  specimen  of  animated  nature — that  was 
— by  a  sensible  woman.  She  said  out  her  next 
thought  openly,  as  an  amende  for  her  disingenuous- 
ness.  "  It  would  be  nice  to  have  him  for  a  frequent 
visitor,  wouldn't  it,  dear?  We  should  derive  im 
provement  as  well  as  enjoyment  from  the  associa 
tion."  She  withheld  the  swift  after-reflection.  "But 
that  is  a  thing  we  have  no  right  to  expect.  He  comes 
now  out  of  pity  for  Albert.  The  probability  is  that 
we  shall  see  nothing  more  of  him  after  his  next 
visit — if,  indeed,  he  should  remember  to  call  again. 
Heigh-ho !  this  evening's  episode  has  been  a  green 
and  gladsome  spot  in  a  dry  and  thirsty  land  where 
little  water  is  !  " 

Albert,  too,  was  silent  for  a  minute.  "Phemie, 
darling ! "  he  said,  then.  "  What  have  you  on,  to 
night?" 

"  The  old  Nankeen,  Bertie  !  the  Inevitable,  you 
know!  "  She  strove  to  say  it  gayly,  but  the  striving 
was  palpable.  She  had  not  thought  once  of  her 
attire  while  Mr.  Hart  stayed,  but  the  sense  of  its 
homeliness — its  positive  shabbiness  and  unsuitable- 
ness  to  the  season,  fell  suddenly  upon  her  at  her 
brother's  query,  together  with  the  impression  of 
elegant  neatness  her  late  visitor's  dress  conveyed  to 
all  who  saw  him.  The  boy's  mouth  changed  from 
its  musing  smile.  "Why  do  you  ask?"  his  sister 


66  PHEMI&8  TEMPTATION. 

resumed,  not'  without  hope  that  his  answer  would 
contradict  her  uncomfortable  misgivings. 

"  Oh,  I  merely  wanted  to  picture  to  myself  how 
you  look.  You  are  beautiful  in  any  dress,  let  it  be 
ermine,  velvet,  or  calico.  You  are  always  my  Queen 
of  Love  and  Beauty.  And  Mr.  Hart  has  too  much 
good  sense  to  care  for  fine  clothes." 

Phemie  seemed  to  arouse  herself  from  a  bewitch 
ing  dream.  "  He  is  a  man  of  the  world,  Bertie,  and 
it  is  of  no  consequence  to  him  what  I  wear — I — a 
girl  so  far  removed  from  the  circle  of  his  intimates, 
that  the  assumption  of  their  manners  and  dress 
would  be  ridiculous.  While  we  retain  our  self- 
respect,  we  are  sure  of  not  being  despised  by  him. 
As  a  means  to  gaining  this  end,  we  must  bear  in 
mind  that  he  is  a  wealthy  gentleman,  and  we  work 
ing-people — day-laborers." 

"  Labor  is  honorable ! "  asserted  Albert,  quickly. 

"  Very  true,  dear  !  But  the  comprehensions  of 
many  are  not  sufficiently  enlightened  to  appreciate 
the  importance  of  that  truth.  And  prejudice  is 
mighty,  even  in  enlightened  minds.'1' 

"/  don't  comprehend  what  you  are  hinting  at!" 
said  the  boy,  with  an  uneasy  twist  upon  his  pillow. 

"  No  ?  I  do  not  myself — very  clearly.  Perhaps 
at  the  prejudices  of  doctors  and  nurses  in  favor  of 
early  hours  and  obedience  to  their  regimen  on  the 
part  of  their  patients,"  was  Phemie's  laughing  reply. 


CHAPTER  IV. 


JISS  DARCY  was  hard  at  work  in  her  office 
on  a  blustering  March  day.  She  was  a 
woman  forty  years  of  age,  tall  and  spare, 
after  the  generally  received  type  of 
middle-aged  maiden  ladies,  and  in  the 
peculiar  costume  she  had  adopted,  she  looked  taller 
and  thinner  than  she  really  was.  Her  dress  was  a 
mixed  gray  worsted  material,  the  waist  made  up 
without  trimming  or  padding  ;  the  skirt  gored — it 
was  before  the  trim  "Gabrielle"  came  into  vogue, 
and  she  claimed  the  patent — and  hoopless,  when 
every  woman  in  town,  who  had  the  slightest  regard 
for  her  appearance,  wore  hoops  nine  feet  in  circum 
ference.  Her  gray  hair — still  soft  and  abundant— 
was  brushed  back  d  la  Chinoise,  a  style  affected  at 
that  date  by  few  excepting  very  pretty  young  girls 
whose  faces  could  bear  any  style  of  coiffure,  and 
twisted  into  a  hard  "  club  "  at  the  back  of  her  head, 
that  would  not  come  down  until  such  time  as  she 
should  be  ready  for  bed.  One  hairdressing  sufficed 
for  her  day.  She  had  no  time  to  waste  upon  trivial 


68  PREMIERS  TEMPTATION. 

pursuits,  for  Miss  Darcy  was  a  woman  of  business. 
True  to  her  habits  of  system  and  order,  her  apparel 
and  every  part  of  her  room  were  clean  and  neatly 
arranged.  Not  an  atom  of  dust;  no  straggling  ends 
of  ribbon  or  tape ;  no  littering  papers  were  visible 
about  her  person  or  floor,  or  table,  and  shelves.  All 
were  tight  and  tidy,  that  her  work  might  progress 
without  let  or  hindrance,  after  it  had  fairly  com 
menced.  At  the  same  time  there  was  an  utter  desti 
tution  of  ornament  in  her  surroundings,  seldom  seen 
in  men's  offices  and  counting-rooms.  Her  books — 
and  these  were  numerous — were  in  plain,  service 
able  bindings,  and  packed  in  solid  rows  upon  shelves 
of  unpainted  wood,  lining  three  sides  of  the  room, 
and  protected  by  glass  sliding-doors,  like  window- 
sashes.  An  oil-cloth  covered  the  floor;  the  chairs 
were  of  yellow  wood — backs  and  seats — even  the  re 
volving  office-chair  in  which  she  sat  at  an  oaken 
desk  of  the  sternest  and  most  uncompromising  pat 
tern,  if  we  except  one  higher  and  narrower,  set 
between  the  windows,  at  which  Miss  Darcy  stood  to 
write  when  she  was  tired  of  sitting. 

A  tyro  in  Lavater's  art  could  not  have  mistaken 
her  for  a  genius,  after  a  study  of  her  visage.  The 
keen  blue  eye;  rounded  forehead,  ridged  only,  and 
that  not  strongly,  by  the  swelling  of  the  perceptive 
organs ;  the  straight  nose  and  somewhat  prominent 
mouth  told  of  fair  intellectual  abilities;  of  great 
quickness  of  observation  and  vivacity  of  thought,  and 
upon  every  feature  was  stamped  her  pre-eminent 
trait,  energy — indomitable,  not  spasmodic,  coupled 


PHEMIE'S  TEMPTATION.  69 

with  sanguine  courage   that  feared  and  faltered  at 
nothing. 

She  had  begun  her  career  in  life  with  the  resolve 
to  be,  and  to  accomplish  something  for  herself,  out 
side  the  beaten  track  allotted  by  custom  to  woman 
kind.  Circumstances  favoring  the  development  of 
her  original  design,  she  had  worked  her  way  up  to  a 
creditable  position  in  the  eyes  of  those  who  honored 
mental  industry  and  pure  philanthropy,  and  earned 
for  herself,  with  the  masses,  the  title  of  "  a  strong- 
minded  woman" — "female,"  Seth  Mandell,  as  one 
of  said  masses,  designated  her.  She  was  emphati 
cally  a  humanitarian,  and  having  a  bias  for  reforms, 
she  had  been  a  woman  of  war  from  her  youth  up. 
There  was  no  warmer  or  larger  heart  under  the 
silken  bodice  of  the  gentlest  mother  in  the  land  than 
throbbed  in  her  corsetless  bosom ;  no  more  fervent 
prayer  reached  the  ear  of  the  All-Father,  whom  she 
worshipped  with  the  hearty  guilelessness  of  a  child, 
than  ascended,  in  ever-burning  incense,  from  her 
soul,  for  the  happiness  of  her  kind.  To  accomplish 
this — her  chief  aim  in  life — she  spent  and  was  spent. 
To  succor  the  poor  and  needy ;  to  convince  the  err 
ing  of  misdeed,  and  lead  him  to  the  light ;  to  right 
the  wronged,  and  uproot  the  evil  that  had  wrought 
his  ruin ;  in  a  word,  to  live  out,  in  its  full  and  glo 
rious  significance,  the  Rule  of  rules,  which — if  all 
endeavored  to  obey  it  as  she  did — would  do  away 
with  the  need  of  other  statutes  and  statute-books; 
this  was  her  purpose,  high  and  fixed,  the  mission  to 
which  she  deeme  I  herself  solemnly  set  apart  by  signs 


70  PHEMI&S  TEMPTATION. 

not  to  be  misread,  and  she  wrought  at  it  mightily, 
and,  as  was  her  nature,  hopefully. 

I  am  not  affirming  that  it  was  other  than  a  rank 
and  superfluous  offshoot  of  a  principle  in  itself 
worthy  of  all  commendation,  that  made  Miss  Darcy 
an  advocate  of  the  equal  rights  of  her  sex  with  man. 
I  do  admit  that  she  was  led  by  her  zeal — mistaken 
or  legitimate — into  injudicious  declarations  on  this 
head  ;  that  many  of  her  schemes  were  proven  to  be 
Utopian  and  Quixotic,  and  her  positions  to  be  unten 
able,  unless  at  a  cost  prudent  people  would  hesitate 
to  pay — namely,  a  tearing-down,  melting  over,  and 
making  up  again  into  an  entirely  new  shape,  the 
structure  of  the  laws  and  society  of  the  present  day. 
I  must  regret,  furthermore,  as  a  candid  historian, 
that  her  energy  and  philanthropy  combined  to  war 
against  her  adoption  of  the  time-honored  and  cer 
tainly  safe  maxim,  "  Festina  lente."  Nor  do  I  deny 
that  if  she  had  looked  before  she  leaped  into  the 
arena  of  public  conflict,  she  might  have  remembered 
another  valuable  scrap  of  common  sense,  to  the  ef 
fect  that,  as  a  general  rule,  the  best  way  to  convert 
even  so  hard-hearted  a  wretch  as  a  confirmed  and 
masculine  man  is  not  to  begin  by  knocking  him 
down.  Again,  dealing  still  in  generalities,  I  may 
suggest  that  most  men  are  not  fond  of  being  knocked 
down,  and  that,  unless  in  very  exceptional  cases,  a 
reformer  does  not  ingratiate  himself  into  their  confi 
dence  and  good-will  by  a  tremendous  display  of  this 
sort  of  moral  pugilism. 

Maybe  Miss  Darcy  had  not  looked.     It  is  certain 


PHEMIE'S  TEMPTATION.  71 

she  had  leaped.  And  she  did  it  with  a  spring  and 
vehemence  that  sent  the  feeble-minded  scattering  to 
the  right  and  left,  like  flocks  of  affrighted  and  af 
fronted  geese,  and  rallied  the  valorous  custodians  of 
ancient  usages  and  landmarks  into  a  phalanx  of  re 
sistance  to  new  measures  and  pestilent  radicals.  Es 
pecially,  women's  rights  radicals.  With  the  bachelor 
of  Tarsus  as  their  fugleman — an  honorable  gentle 
man,  by  the  way,  whose  few  remarks  touching  the 
expediency  of  women's  learning  of  their  husbands 
at  home  (presupposing,  mark  you !  that  their  hus 
bands  knew  enough  to  teach  them),  their  wearing 
their  hair  long,  and  submitting  themselves  to  their 
Christian  lords  (and  such  are  worthy  of  all  deference 
and  honor),  whose  three  or  four  brief  deliverances 
on  this  subject,  I  say,  have  been  handled  and  twisted 
in  a  style  he  little  anticipated  when  he  penned  them, 
with  these  mottoes  upon  their  banners,  they  assem 
bled  on  their  side  overwhelming  odds  of  respecta 
bility  and  piety.  Secure  in  numbers  and  the  pres 
tige  of  honored  customs,  they  hurled  defiance  at  the 
aggressor — defiance  which  would  have  been  both  ir 
rational  .and  insolent,  had  those  who  employed  this 
means  of  warfare  been  less  sensible  and  respectable. 
If,  in  the  name  of  industrious  wives  with  starving 
children  and  drunken  husbands  ;  of  widows,  who, 
their  lords  having  died  intestate,  saw  their  ample 
dowries  parcelled  out  among  rapacious  and  un 
friendly  relatives-in-law,  our  reformer  assailed  the 
property -laws  of  her  native  State,  and  of  most  other 
States,  for  that  matter,  as  oppressive  and  iniquitous, 


72  PHEMIE'S  TEMPTATION. 

her  opponents  inquired,  sometimes  piously,  some 
times  profanely,  what  under  heaven  was  left  for  a 
woman  to  desire,  if  she  were  once  enriched  by  the 
possession  of  a  husband?  Of  course,  all  that  she 
had  and  all  she  was,  became,  absolutely,  and  be 
yond  recall,  his,  from  the  hour,  when,  in  words  of 
man's  making,  he  vowed  at  the  altar  to  endow  her 
with  all  his  worldly  goods.  As  Saxe  wickedly  and 
wittily  remarks : — 

"  Once  born  in  Boston,  need  no  second  birth." 

So,  once  married,  women  need  no  other  wealth. 

If — and  upon  this  section  of  her  bill  of  rights  Miss 
Darcy  was  "  terrific  " — said  the  aforesaid  weak  and 
strong,  in  chorus — if  she  demanded  other  avenues 
of  honorable  labor  for  women  than  the  crowded 
lanes  in  which  they  were  beaten  down  by  competi 
tion,  until  the  weary  day  was  too  short  in  which  to 
earn  the  pittance  that  was  to  buy  bread  for  crying 
babes  and  superannuated  parents ;  if  she  pealed  a 
war-cry  that  shot  a  thrill  to  the  heart  of  the  teacher, 
as  she  bowed  her  contracted  chest,  curved  spine, 
and  dimming  eyes  over  the  pyramid  of  copy-books 
and  exercises  left  uptm  her  desk  at  the  close  of  her 
day's  labor  among  classes  men  had  not  the  patience 
or  tact  to  instruct ;  that  quickened  the  numbed 
feet  of  the  saleswoman,  forbidden  to  rest  these,  or 
lessen  the  sickening  pain  in  her  back  by  sitting 
down  for  one  instant  for  six,  or  it  might  be  twelve 
hours,  on  a  stretch ;  that  nerved  the  cramped 
fingers  of  the  copyist,  whose  chirography  was  pro- 


PHEMIE'S  TEMPTATION.  73 

nounced  legible  as  a  man's,  and  more  rapid ;  if 
employers  frowned  and  stormed,  and  operatives 
dared  be  glad  at  sound  of  her  fearless,  "  MEN'S 
WAGES  FOR  MEN'S  WORK  1 "  her  antagonists  were 
also  ready  and  undannted.  "  Nobody  asked  women 
to  do  men's  work.  If  they  would  overstep  the 
modest  bounds  appointed  by  Providence  (!)  as  the 
sphere  of  their  labors  and  aspirations,  they  must 
take  what  they  received  for  the  rash  undertaking, 
and  be  thankful  they  were  not  hustled  with  igno 
miny  from  the  forbidden  ground.  Let  women  stay 
at  home — had  not  St.  Paul  said  this,  over  and  over? 
— and  mend  their  husbands'  stockings,  or  their  bro 
thers',  if  they  were  husbandless — or  those  of  their 
nearest  masculine  relative,  if  brother  and  husband 
were  both  wanting — and  rock  their  babies'  cradles, 
or  their  sisters'  babies'  cradles,  if  they  had  none  of 
their  own,  and  keep  the  pot  boiling,  let  the  con 
tents  be  turtle-soup  or  oat-meal  porridge,  or  husks 
and  water.  Nobody  would  find  fault  with  them 
while  thus  meekly  fulfilling  the  duties  of  their  voca 
tion,  and,  since  every  rule  works  both  ways,  they 
woulu  have  no  cause  of  complaint  against  any  one 
else." 

These  were  the  stock  arguments  of  the  opposition 
— these,  and  the  yet  more  telling  weapon  of  ridi 
cule,  fancy  sketches  of  ..society  under  the  proposed 
regime,  when  every  woman  should  be  forty  years 
old,  with  grizzled  tresses  drawn  back  from  their 
sharp  features,  and  should  dress  in  gray  and  discard 
crinoline  ;  when  wives  should  go  to  Congress  and 
4 


74  PHEMIE'8  TEMPTATION. 

their  spouses  stay  at  home  to  tend  the  baby  ;  when 
the  acme  of  praise  applied  to  one  of  the  ci-dewant 
stronger  sex  should  be  to  call  him  a  dutiful  husband, 
and  wives  should  smile  proud  patronage  upon  the 
pattern  partners  who  relieved  them  of  household 
cares,  at  hearing  that  Rev.  Mrs.  So-and-so,  or  the 
Hon.  Mrs.  Blank,  had  declared  them,  the  model 
help-meets,  to  be  "  wonderfully  well-informed — 
almost  as  clever  as  women." 

Any  one  of  which  retorts,  as  may  be  seen  by  a 
woman  with  half  an  eye,  and  by  a  man  with  no 
eyes  at  all,  is  more  than  an  answer  to  a  volume  of 
statistics  setting  forth  the  abuses  of  masculine  au 
thority  over  the  weaker — and  softer — sex.  Miss 
Darcy  might  feign  to  sweep  these  "  clinchers " 
aside  as  cobwebs  of  sophistry  and  special  pleading. 
They  were  cobwebs  that  caught  many  flies,  and 
some  honest-minded  bees,  and  the  hum  and  buzz  of 
these  sometimes  drowned  her  battle-cry.  Her  pro 
fession — that  by  which  she  got  her  daily  bread  and 
the  means  of  helping  others — was  that  of  literary 
hack.  She  was  the  acknowledged  Editor — not  pro 
prietor — of  one  magazine,  and,  unsuspected  by  the 
readers,  wrote  many  editorial  articles  for  other 
periodicals.  Her  style  was  epigrammatic;  she  had 
an  exhaustless  store  of  general  information,  in  tech 
nical  phrase,  was  "  well  booked  up  "  in  history,  solid 
literature,  and  the  sciences ;  she  could  do  all  sorts 
of  odd  literary  jobs  upon  short  notice,  except  such 
as  were  unfair  and  unclean,  and  her  pen  was  seldom 
idle.  Those  who  did  not  know  her,  save  by  com- 


PHEMIE'S  TEMPTATION.  75 

mon  report,  hated  the  sound  of  her  name ;  her 
beneficiaries — those  to  whom  she  had  ministered  in 
mind,  body,  or  estate,  revered  her  as  a  saint,  and 
the  few  friends  who  had  the  opportunity  of  reading 
the  clear  pages  of  the  beautiful  soul  concealed  by 
her  homely  guise  and  blunt  manner,  loved  as  much 
as  they  respected  her,  and  that  was  sincerely  and 
earnestly. 

She  was  driving  her  pen  diligently  this  morning, 
sitting  very  erect,  without,  as  I  have  hinted,  the  sup 
port  of  a  corset-board,  when  a  knock  at  the  door 
brought  two  monosyllables  from  her  lips  without 
withdrawing  her  eyes  from  the  paper  under  her  fin 
gers.  Her  "  office  "  was  the  front  of  a  pair  of  rooms 
she  rented  in  a  second-class  boarding-house,  and  was 
open  to  callers  at  all  hours  of  the  day,  after  half-past 
eight  A.  M.  "  Come  in !  "  she  said,  in  a  pleasant,  even 
voice,  that  was  always  a  surprise  to  fresh  acquain 
tances,  being  neither  sharp  nor  loud. 

"  Good  morning !  "  said  the  visitor,  pausing  at  the 
door.  "  Am  I  intruding?  I  can  come  again,  if  you 
will  appoint  an  hour  when  you  will  be  less  busy." 

"  Ah,  Hart !  Good  morning !  "  Miss  Darcy  arose 
and  gave  him  her  hand.  Her  address  might  have 
been  more  ceremonious,  and  in  terms  more  respect 
ful,  but,  while  I  do  not  urge  it  in  extenuation  of  the 
improprieties  manifest  in  this,  I  may  remark,  en  pas 
sant,  that  the  character  of  her  dealings  with  most  so- 
called  gentlemen,  or  their  dealings  with  her,  had  not 
been  such  as  to  impress  her  with  veneration,  or  an 
extraordinary  degree  of  respect  at  their  approach. 


76  PREMIERS  TEMPTATION. 

She  was  entirely  consistent,  moreover,  and  would 
have  been  content  had  he  called  her  "  Darcy  "  in  re 
turn.  "  I  am  glad  to  see  you,"  she  added.  "  Take 
a  seat !  My  work  can  stand  still  for  a  little  while 
without  hurt  to  it  or  to  myself." 

Mr.  Hart  helped  himself  to  one  of  the  hard  chairs, 
and  set  his  hat  upon  another.  "It  is  a  bitter  wind 
to-day  !  "  he  observed,  stroking  his  redundant  beard 
into  its  accustomed  graceful  fall.  "  You  are  wise  to 
stay  within  doors." 

"  I  stay  in  because  I  am  busy.  I  like  this  weather. 
The  wind  gives  one  something  to  do  when  he  walks, 
and  stirs  the  blood  healthily.  I  have  to  walk  three 
miles,  this  afternoon." 

"  Indeed  !  I  do  not  envy  you  !  "  raising  his  shoul 
ders,  with  a  slight  laugh. 

He  would  have  envied  her  less  had  he  known  that 
her  mission  was  to  one  of  the  worst  wards  in  the  city, 
in  which  she  meant  to  watch,  all  night,  with  a  fever- 
patient.  It  was  not  her  way  to  mention  these  things. 

"  I  came  in  on  a  little  matter  of  business,"  resumed 
Mr.  Hart.  "  We  want  to  bring  out  a  compendium 
of  Chemistry — a  text-book,  suitable  for  schools,  while 
it  shall  yet  be  interesting  reading  for  the  private 
student,  or  family  circle.  We  have  daily  calls  for 
such,  and  there  is  not  in  the  market  one  which  we 
can  honestly  recommend.  Mallory  leaves  all  mat 
ters  pertaining  to  book-writing  and  book-writers  to 
me,  and  I  know  of  nobody  more  competent  to  meet 
my  wishes  in  this  regard  than  yourself.  Will  you 
undertake  the  task  ? " 


PHEMIE'8  TEMPTATION.  77 

Miss  Darcy  shook  her  head  in  a  decided  negative. 
"  I  cannot !  I  could  not  touch  it  for  six  months  to 
come,  and  your  part  of  the  work — plates,  etc. — 
would  take  at  ieast  three  months  more.  I  should 
like  to  oblige  you,  and  I  should  enjoy  the  work  better 
than  I  do  that  which  will  prevent  my  compliance  with 
your  wish,  but  I  never  make  an  engagement  unless 
there  is  a  reasonable  probability  that  I  can  fulfil  it." 

"I  am  disappointed ! "  said,  the  young  publisher, 
sincerely.  "And  baffled.  You  cannot  recommend 
some  one  else  to  me  who  is  fit  to  prepare  the  volume, 
can  you  ?  " 

Miss  Darcy  mused.  "  Yes !  "  she  said,  at  length, 
her  eyes  lighting  up  with  the  pure  pleasure  of  doing 
a  benevolent  deed.  "  I  know  who  can  do  it  as  well 
— better  than  I  can — better  because  she  holds  a  more 
facile  pen  than  my  blunt  nib.  Euphemia  Rowland 
can  get  up  your  compend  to  your  satisfaction. 
"Whether  she  will  or  not,  I  cannot  say.  If  you 
choose  to  make  her  an  offer  upon  my  recommenda 
tion,  you  can  do  so." 

Mr.  Hart  looked  interested.  "  You  surprise  me ! 
I  had  no  idea — I  would  say  that  I  have  conversed 
with  the  young  lady,  during  two  or  three  of  my 
visits  to  her  brother,  and  found  her  more  than  agree 
able — exceedingly  intelligent  and  sprightly.  Of  her 
proficiency  in  other  branches  of  study  than  belles- 
lettres,  I  have,  of  course,  had  no  means  of  judging. 
I  was  under  the  impression,  however,  that,  of  late 
years,  she  had  been  engrossed  by  other  occupations 
to  the  exclusion  of  such  pursuits." 


78  PHEMIE'S  TEMPTATION. 

The  charger  snuffed  the  wind  from  the  battle-field, 
and  was  on  her  mettle  immediately.  "  That  is,  you 
had  an  idea  that  a  girl  who  works  for  a  living  must 
necessarily  be  sordid,  and  incapable'of  love  of  learn 
ing  for  learning's  sake.  In  this  instance,  at  least, 
your  acumen  is  at  fault.  Euphemia  has  been  an 
enthusiastic  student  of  other  and  grander  mysteries 
than  the  multiplication  table  and  double  entry,  and 
I  can  -answer  for  her  that,  up  to  this  hour,  not  a 
thought  has  crossed  her  mind  that  she  may  make 
money  by  the  exercise  of  her  memory  and  talents  in 
this  line.  I  overhauled  a  portfolio  of  hers,  a  month 
ago,  and  disinterred  from  its  depths  more  good  things 
than  one  meets  in  nine  out  of  ten  magazines  that 
people  subscribe  to,  and  praise.  I  brought  three  or 
four  home  with  me,  to  read  at  my  leisure,  I  told  her. 
You  will  see  one  of  these  in  my  next  number.  She 
will  be  surprised  when  it  meets  her  eyes — perhaps 
disposed  to  be  offended.  I  don't  care  if  she  is. 
There  is  rare  metal  in  her  mind,  and  it  ought  to  be 
worked.  But  don't  take  my  word  for  her  attain 
ments  in  chemistry.  Contrive  an  opportunity  for 
examining  her  yourself.  You  can  easily  invent  a 
pretext." 

Mr.  Hart  laughed  again,  less  easily  than  before. 
"A  pretty  catechist  I  should  be!  If  she  is  thorough, 
as  you  say,  she  would  have  me  out  of  my  deptli  in 
five  minutes.  You  know,  Miss  Darcy — so  I  need 
not  try  to  conceal  from  you  what  I  don't  care  to 
proclaim  from  the  house-top — to  wit,  that  thorough 
ness  is  not  my  forte.  What  I  know  I  have  picked 


PHEMIE^S  TEMPTATION.  79 

up  for  myself,  in  so  many  fields,  I  have  not  had  time 
to  glean  any  clean.  I  am  interested  in  what  you  say 
of  Miss  Rowland.  You  will  do  me  a  service  by  ap 
proaching  her  on  this  subject.  You  can  do  it  better 
than  I.  Tell  her  what  will  be  required  of  her,  should 
she  undertake  the  job,  and  say  that  she  shall  receive 
whatever  remuneration  you  and  she  deem  just  and 
liberal.  I  would  not.  say  as  much  to  most  women, 
but  I  can  trust  your  judgment  and  honor." 

"  You  could  trust  many  more,  without  being  rob 
bed  ! "  observed  the  champion  of  her  sex.  "  The  ma 
jority  of  women,  poor  souls !  are  underpaid  to  such 
a  degree  that  they  wouldn't  know  how  to  set  an  ex 
orbitant  price  upon  their  work.  I  thank  you  hearti 
ly  for  this  offer  to  Euphemia.  She  will  like  the 
work — chemistry  being  a  favorite  pursuit  with  her — 
and  she  needs  the  money.  She  has  had  much  to  try 
her  spirits  lately,  and  this,  by  giving  her  pleasant 
occupation  in  the  evenings,  will  prevent  her  from 
dwelling  upon  her  discomforts." 

"  Her  brother's  state  must  weigh  heavily  upon  her 
mind,"  remarked"  Mr.  Hart,  too  polite  to  give  verbal 
expression  to  the  curiosity  begotten  by  his  compan 
ion's  reference  to  a  plurality  of  trials. 

"Yes.  Her  main  wish  in  his  behalf  may  be  grat 
ified  through  your  instrumentality.  She  wants  to 
enter  him  as  a  pupil  in  the  State  Asylum  for  the 
blind.  The  fees  are  not  high.  I  shall  force  her  to 
let  me  bear  a  portion  of  the  expense.  I  cannot  di 
vest  myself  of  the  idea  that  I  was,  in  some  sense,  re 
sponsible  for  the  accident  that  cost  him  his  eyesight. 


80  PHEMIE' S  TEMPTATION. 

I  think  I  see  the  way  in  which  she  is  to  earn  her 
proportion  of  the  needful  sum,"  smiling  approval 
upon  her  visitor,  a  benignant  beam  that  clothed  her 
marked  features  with  real  beauty.  "But,"  she  con 
tinued,  "Phemie  is  proud,  and,  hide  it  as  she  may, 
too  sensitive  for  the  rough  handling  of  the  everyday 
world.  She  chafes  grievously  under  a  reprimand, 
administered,  the  other  day,  by  her  employer — a 
purse-proud  dolt — who  is  yet  wise  enough  to  know  that 
he  is  defrauding  her  by  keeping  her  in  his  store  upon 
a  salary  which  a  half-witted  hod-carrier,  who  happens 
to  have  been  born  a  man,  would  scorn  to  accept.  I 
have  been  meaning  to  tell  you  the  incident  as  I 
had  it  from  Charlotte.  Euphemia  has  never  alluded 
to  it  in  my  hearing.  It  has  occurred  to  me  that  you 
might  be  able  to  cast  some  light  upon  the  transaction, 
since  your  partner's  sister  was  one  of  the  principals 
in  it.  Some  time  last  month,  Miss  Mallory  offered  a 
bill  at  Arnold's  in  payment  for  certain  articles  she 
had  bought,  and  Phemie  pronounced  it  to  be  a  coun 
terfeit.  Some  discussion  ensued,  and  the  affair  was 
settled  by  the  presentation  of  a  good  bill  of  the  same 
amount,  by  a  gentleman  who  had  accompanied  Miss 
Mallory  to  the  store.  There  the  story  should  end. 
Miss  Mallory  thought  differently.  She  was  deeply 
offended  at  Euphemia's  conduct  in  the  case,  and  took 
occasion  to  express  her  resentment  to  those  who  car 
ried  the  tale,  with  amplifications,  to  Mr.  Arnold.  He 
was  displeased  and  alarmed  to  learn  that  a  young 
lady  of  wealth  and  fashion  had  stated  publicly  her 
determination  never  to  enter  his  establishment  again 


PHEMIE'S  TEMPTATION.  81 

while  he  retained  his  present  book-keeper;  adding 
that  it  was  unsafe  for  an  unprotected  woman  to  deal 
at  his  counters,  enforcing  her  declaration  by  recount 
ing  her  unfortunate  experience.  Whereupon,  Eu- 
phemia,  being  a  poor  girl,  dependent  for  her  liveli 
hood  upon  her  industry  and  unblemished  character, 
and  Miss  Mallory  being  raised  far  above  such  vulgar 
considerations,  our  noble-minded  merchant  summon 
ed  to  his  private  office  the  subordinate  whose  offence 
had  consisted  in  zeal  for  his  interests,  and  cautioned 
her  stringently  against  a  repetition  of  the  insult  to 
his  customers. 

" ( You  should  not  have  pressed  the  objection  when 
Miss  Mallory  persisted  in  her  belief  that  the  note  was 
good,'  he  said.  *  If  it  had  deceived  her,  you  could 
readily  have  passed  it  off  to  some  one  else.  At  least,' 
as  Euphemia  looked  her  amazement  at  this  remark 
able  bit  of  morality,  '  you  should  have  made  every 
effort  to  secure  Miss  Mallory's  good-will.  The  loss 
of  her  custom,  and  that  of  those  who  may  be  influ 
enced  by  her  story,  will  be  greater  than  ten  times 
the  amount  of  the  doubtful  note.  You  are  too  abrupt, 
Miss  Rowland — too  regardless — I  may  say,  rudely 
neglectful  of  the  feelings  of  your  associates,  and  of 
my  patrons.  You  must  cultivate  a  more  insinuating 
manner  and  study  policy,  if  you  expect  to  remain  in 
my  employ.  I  may  as  well  be  plain  with  you.' ' 

"She  should  have  resigned  her  situation  on  the 
spot!"  exclaimed  Mr.  Hart.  "I  cannot  understand 
how  any  woman  of  spirit  could  submit  to  such  an 
affront.  And  she  has  a  spirited  face  and  manner." 

4* 


PHEMIE'8  TEMPTATION. 

"  Spirit  is  an  admirable  commodity,  but  expen 
sive!"  rejoined  Miss  Darcy,  dryly.  "Too  expensive 
for  the  use  of  a  young  girl  whose  mother,  sister,  and 
blind  brother  are  dependent  upon  her  labor.  Sit 
uations  are  difficult  to  get,  in  these  times,  as  proba 
bly  Mr.  Arnold  reflected  when  he  rebuked  his  ser 
vant  for  performing  her  duty.  If  she  had  taken  the 
note,  he  is  quite  capable  of  requiring  her  to  palm  it 
off  upon  some  other  ignoramus  like  her  who  tender 
ed  it,  or  to  assume  the  loss  herself." 

"  Come !  now  you  are  too  hard  upon  your  natural 
enemies ! "  objected  the  other,  good-humoredly. 
"  Give  even  a  man  his  due." 

"  Woe  be  to  most  of  them  if  I  did !  "  was  the  an 
swer,  uttered  as  good-humoredly.  "  But  seriously, 
I  could  cite  dozens  of  cases  in  which  the  latter  course 
has  been  pursued.  And  why  not?  It  makes  em 
ployees  careful  to  use  their  eyes  and  wits  well. 
There  is  a  law  against  passing  or  receiving  counter 
feit  money,  and  upon  what  class  can  it  be  more 
safely  enforced  than  upon  shop-girls,  whose  brothers 
and  fathers,  when  they  have  them,  are  too  poor  to 
go  to  law,  and  who  would  be  worsted  to  a  dead  cer 
tainty,  if  they  were  to  resort  to  this  measure  ?  To 
return  to  the  subject  of  Mr.  Arnold's  reprimand. 
Phemie  has  never  been  accused  of  a  want  of  spirit, 
but  she  is  also  sensible  and  prudent,  so  she  pocketed 
the  insult.  "Women  in  her  position  put  more  of  that 
sort  of  thing  into  their  pockets  than  anything  else. 
It  has  galled  and  depressed  her  unspeakably,  Char 
lotte  says,  but  she  has  no  redress.  I  have  seriously 


PHEMIE' 8  TEMPTATION.  83 

meditated  an  appeal  to  Miss  Mallory.  She  is  a 
stranger  to  ine,  but  I  have  thought  if  the  matter 
were  set  fairly  before  her,  she  might  recall  her  reso 
lution  of  deliberate  injury  to  one  who  was  her  asso 
ciate  in  former  days." 

"  Hey  !  What  did  you  say  ?  Of  whom  are  you 
speaking  ? "  asked  her  auditor,  in  genuine  surprise. 

"  Clara  Mallory  was  the  bosom  friend  of  Phemie 
Rowland  when  the  Rowlands  were  somebodies.  As 
nobodies — and  worse  than  nobodies — now  they  can- 
riot  expect  her  to  recollect  the  unimportant  fact  of 
their  existence.  Miss  Clara  may,  or  may  not,  have 
recognized  her  old  school-fellow  after  a  five  years' 
separation.  We  will  give  her  the  benefit  of  the 
doubt.  But  she  knows  that  she  has  no  adequate 
cause  for  her  unwomanly  persecution  of  her  neglected 
school-fellow." 

"Is  it  unwomanly  ? "  Mr.  Hart  could  not  avoid 
saying.  "  Are  not  your  sex  harder  upon  each  other 
than  men  are — taking  men  at  their  worst  ? " 

"  I  am  afraid  there  is  much  truth  in  what  you 
say,"  returned  Miss  Darcy,  unabashed.  "  The  worst 
master  in  the  world  is  a  lately  emancipated  slave,  or 
one  who,  while  in  bondage  himself,  is  suffered  to 
control  others.  He  understands  so  well  how  it  is 
done,  you  see.  As  to  my  poor  Phemie,  she  must 
take  Life  as  it  comes  to  her.  Gop  help  her  and  pity 
us  all!" 

"A  little  human  help  may  not  be  unacceptable, 
nevertheless !  "  Mr.  Hart  smiled  to  himself  in  tak 
ing  out  his  pocket-book. 


84  PREMIERS  TEMPTATION. 

"  She  wouldn't  accept  money  from  you,  or  from 
any  one  else,  while  she  can  hold  up  her  head  or  move 
her  fingers  !  "  cried  Miss  Darcy,  red  with  generous 
indignation,  and  not  a  little  mortified  at  what  she 
imagined  was  the  result  of  the  interview.  "I  would 
not  have  been  so  amazed  at  many  other  men,  Hart ! 
But  you  should  know  better  and  do  better  than  to 
fall  into  the  popular  fallacy  of  most  well-to-do-people 
— the  belief  that  bank-bills  are  an  infallible  plas 
ter  for  all  the  ills  that  the  honest  poor  are  subject  to. 
Euphemia  Rowland  is  a  lady  as  truly  as  you  are  a 
gentleman,  more  truly,  if  you  insult  me  by  suspect 
ing  that  this  frank  talk  of  mine  was  a  trap  set  to 
catch  your  alms  !  " 

The  man  of  books  laughed  until  he  could  scarcely 
extract  from  an  inner  pocket  of  his  wallet  a  folded 
paper.  "  Oblige  me  by  looking  at  that !  "  he  said, 
still  shaking  with  merriment. 

Miss  Darcy  complied,  carelessly  at  first,  being 
still  warm  with  resentment  of  the  insult  offered  her 
favorite.  Then,  something  in  the  appearance  of  the 
bill  catching  her  eye,  she  scrutinized  it  warily.  "  It 
is  spurious !  How  came  you  by  it  ?  " 

"  I  had  it  from  Miss  Rowland's  own  hand,  although 
she  has  not  identified  me  with  Miss  Mallory's  escort 
on  the  day  of  their  fracas.  It  is  a  counterfeit,  as  you 
say,  and  wretchedly  executed.  Miss  Mallory  and  I 
were  on  our  way  to  an  exhibition  of  paintings,  and 
took  Arnold's  in  our  route,  she  being  in  perishing 
need  of  some  divine  lace  she  had  heard  of  as  procura 
ble  at  that  emporium.  As  a  gentleman  " — mischiev- 


PHEMIE'S  TEMPTATION.  85 

ously  emphatic — "  I  could  not  do  less  than  extricate 
her  from  her  disagreeable  situation  in  the  manner 
you  have  related.  Her  impression,  while  conversing 
with  Miss  Rowland,  was  that  she  had  received  the 
note  at  Wylie's.  Of  this  she  became  doubtful,  upon 
mature  deliberation,  and  the  upshot  of  the  matter 
was  that  I  have  set  down  the  $20  to  profit  and  loss, 
and  begged  her  never  to  think  of  it  again.  As  a 
gentleman,  having  heard  your  story,  I  cannot  now  do 
less — I  wish  I  could  do  more — than  show  this  apple 
of  discord  to  Mr.  Arnold,  and  exonerate  Miss  Row 
land  from  all  blame  in  the  aifair.  As  the  partner  of 
Miss  Mallory's  brother,  and  an  eye-witness  of  the 
proffer  and  rejection  of  the  note,  I  am  the  fittest 
person  to  interfere  for  the  justification  of  your  friend." 

"  I  beg  your  'pardon  !  "  Miss  Darcy  extended  her 
hand,  and  the  keen  blue  eyes  were  overcast  into 
softness  as  she  said  it.  "  I  did  you  foul  injustice,  and 
I  am  sorry  for  it.  You  heart  is  in  the  right  place,  if 
it  is  buttoned  in  by  a  broadcloth  waistcoat." 

"  Thank  you !  "  he  arose.  "  If  you  will  excuse  the 
threadbare  pun,  I  may  remark  that  I  fear  this  Hart 
has  been  in  the  wrong  place  for  the  last  ten  minutes. 
I  have  trespassed  too  long  upon  your  valuable  time. 
When  you  have  communicated  my  offer  to  Miss 
Rowland,  and  had  her  reply,  please  let  me  know. 
Good-day !  " 

MJSS  Darcy  did  not  jestingly  construe  the  latter 
sentence  into  a  double  entendre.  Such  ideas  were 
not  in  her  line  of  thought  or  action.  And  she  was 
assuredly  the  last  person  Mr.  Hart,  or  any  other  gentle 


86  PHEM1&S  TEMPTATION. 

man  who  only  met  her  in  business  Hours,  would  have 
selected  as  the  bearer  of  any  offer  more  sentimental 
than  one  pertaining  to  dollars  and  cents.  The  steady 
gleam  returned  to  the  bright  eyes,  and  the  expression 
of  settled  purpose  and  energy  to  her  features  and 
figure,  as  she  bent  again  over  her  manuscript,  ere  the 
echo  of  the  visitor's  footsteps  ceased  to  resound  in  the 
hall.  True,  he  had  left  her  much  to  think  of,  but  this 
was  not  the  time  for  doing  it. 


CHAPTEK   Y. 

the  afternoon  of  the  March  day,  the  morn 
ing  of  which  Mr.  Hart  had  selected  for  his 
call  upon  Miss  Darcy — an  afternoon  more 
blustering,  after  the  wont  of  March  weather, 
than  the  morning  had  been,  Phemie  Row 
land  sat  at  her  high  desk,  seemingly  intent  upon  her 
books,  but,  in  reality,  with  not  enough  to  do,  in  the 
way  of  business,  to  occupy  her  thoughts,  although 
she  might  and  did  keep  her  fingers  in  motion.  Cus 
tomers  had  been  scarce  all  day,  and  diminished  in 
numbers  as  the  wind  gained  fury  and  persistence. 
From  her  seat  she  could  see  columns  of  dust  moving 
down  the  street ;  the  rocking  trees ;  awnings  billow 
ing  in  the  gale,  or  torn  into  ribbons,  and  the  jeal 
ously-closed  glass  doors  were  insufficient  to  exclude 
the  finer  particles  of  the  offensive  cloud  from  the  in 
terior  of  the  store.  They  settled  upon  her  paper  in 
gritty  powder  that  clogged  her  ink  and  set  her  teeth 
on  edge  as  it  ground  into  the  hand  resting  upon  the 
page.  The  sky  was  pale  and  hard;  the  sunshine 
raw,  and  devoid  of  warmth,  and  not  a  leaf-bud  had 


90  PREMIERS  TEMPTATION. 

cided,  three  days  before,  that  Albert's  blindness  was 
incurable.  Charlotte  had  had  another  hemorrhage 
— very  slight,  but  alarming,  inasmuch  as  it  showed 
the  foe,  consumption,  to  be  lurking  on  the  outposts 
of  her  constitution — and  prices  were  rising.  Be 
tween  those  she  loved  best  and  the  black  bread  of 
penury — the  blacker,  more  distasteful  crusts  of  charity, 
was  her  single  hand,  and  her  recent  experience  of 
Mr.  Arnold's  humors  had  revealed  to  her  the  slen- 
derness  of  this  barrier.  She  was  not  prone  to  bor 
row  care,  but  a  continuous  weight  will,  in  time,  bend 
springs  of  the  finest  metal  and  best  temper.  It  is  a 
strain  that  tries  the  stoutest  will  to  keep  one's  face 
turned  constantly  to  the  light  when  a  stiff  gale  of 
discouragements1  is  as  constantly  tending  to  twist  it 
in  the  opposite  direction.  Phemie  wrestled  bravely, 
yet  even  she  was  tired,  to-day. 

"  I  begin  to  enter  into  Olive's  meaning  when  she 
says,  every  other  Saturday,  that  she  is  ready  to  sit 
down  until  the  unfinished  work  mounts  to  her  chin 
— then  get  upon  the  table,"  she  said  to  herself,  a 
faint  smile  touching  her  lips — not  her  eyes — at  the 
droll  conceit.  "  Only,  with  me,  the  table  is  wanting. 
Then,  again,  if  I  go  down,  I  drag  others  with  me. 
Oh,  my  weak,  burdened  hands!  If  I  could  but 
stretch  them  once  toward  the  free  heavens,  in  the 
knowledge  that  my  helpless  darlings  were  provided 
for,  and  that  I  might  cross  my  aching  wrists  for  one 
hour  of  reposeful  gratitude !  Will  the  day  ever 
come?  and  how?  Father!  forgive  Thine  impatient 
child !  Strengthen  her  in  this  season  of  weak  dis- 


PHEMIE'8  TEMPTATION".  91 

may !  THOU,  who  didst  bear  the  sore  burden  of  hu 
manity,  help  me  to  support  my  cross !  " 

The  most  devout  pra}rers  are  not  always,  those 
uttered  upon  the  knees  in  churches  and  oratories. 
ISTo  veiled  nun,  weeping  before  the  crucifix  in  her 
stone  cell,  could  sob  petitions  fraught  with  deeper 
humility,  more  passionate  earnestness,  than  was  this 
voiceless  appeal  to  the  Hearer  of  all  prayer,  the  GOD 
of  all  sanctuaries,  the  Saviour  of  the  tempted  and 
the  sinking. 

A  gentleman  passed  up  the  store,  so  close  to  her 
desk  she  could  have  touched  his  sleeve,  but  the  bow 
ed  head  was  not  lifted.  Shut  in  from  the  outer 
scene  by  her  thronging  thoughts,  she  did  not  hear 
the  buzz  succeeding  the  silence  of  respect  or  civility 
that  had  reigned  during  his  transit  from  the  front 
door  to  Mr.  Arnold's  private  office.  On  a  busy  day 
he  might  have  come  and  gone  a  dozen  times  without 
attracting  so  much  attention.  •  •  On  this  windy  after 
noon  events  were  at  a  premium,  and  when  it  was 
whispered  from  one  to  another  that  this  distinguish 
ed-looking  personage  was  Miss  Mallory's  fiance,  and 
how  queer  it  was  that  he  should  want  to  see  Mr. 
Arnold,  and  could  it  be  that  the  counterfeit  bill  af 
fair  was  not  settled  yet  ?  his  appearance  became  an 
event,  and  one  of  considerable  magnitude.  A  por 
tentous  one,  when,  five  minutes  thereafter,  Mr.  Ar 
nold  looked  out  of  his  office-door  and  beckoned  a 
messenger,  who  forthwith  notified  Miss  Rowland 
that  she  was  wanted. 

She  started  and  changed  color  visibly — all  agreed 


90  PREMIERS  TEMPTATION. 

cided,  three  days  before,  that  Albert's  blindness  was 
incurable.  Charlotte  had  had  another  hemorrhage 
— very  slight,  but  alarming,  inasmuch  as  it  showed 
the  foe,  consumption,  to  be  lurking  on  the  outposts 
of  her  constitution — and  prices  were  rising.  Be 
tween  those  she  loved  best  and  the  black  bread  of 
penury — the  blacker,  more  distasteful  crusts  of  charity, 
was  her  single  hand,  and  her  recent  experience  of 
Mr.  Arnold's  humors  had  revealed  to  her  the  slen- 
derness  of  this  barrier.  She  was  not  prone  to  bor 
row  care,  but  a  continuous  weight  will,  in  time,  bend 
springs  of  the  finest  metal  and  best  temper.  It  is  a 
strain  that  tries  the  stoutest  will  to  keep  one's  face 
turned  constantly  to  the  light  when  a  stiff  gale  of 
discouragements'  is  as  constantly  tending  to  twist  it 
in  the  opposite  direction.  Phemie  wrestled  bravely, 
yet  even  she  was  tired,  to-day. 

"  I  begin  to  enter  into  Olive's  meaning  when  she 
says,  every  other  Saturda}7,  that  she  is  ready  to  sit 
down  until  the  unfinished  work  mounts  to  her  chin 
— then  get  upon  the  table,"  she  said  to  herself,  a 
faint  smile  touching  her  lips — not  her  eyes — at  the 
droll  conceit.  "  Only,  with  me,  the  table  is  wanting. 
Then,  again,  if  I  go  down,  I  drag  others  with  me. 
Oh,  my  weak,  burdened  hands !  If  I  could  but 
stretch  them  once  toward  the  free  heavens,  in  the 
knowledge  that  my  helpless  darlings  were  provided 
for,  and  that  I  might  cross  my  aching  wrists  for  one 
hour  of  reposeful  gratitude !  Will  the  day  ever 
come  ?  and  how  ?  Father !  forgive  Thine  impatient 
child !  Strengthen  her  in  this  season  of  weak  dis- 


PHEMIE'8  TEMPTATION:  91 

may !  THOU,  who  didst  bear  the  sore  burden  of  hu 
manity,  help  me  to  support  my  cross  1 " 

The  most  devout  prayers  are  not  alwaya  those 
uttered  upon  the  knees  in  churches  and  oratories. 
No  veiled  nun,  weeping  before  the  crucifix  in  her 
stone  cell,  could  sob  petitions  fraught  with  deeper 
humility,  more  passionate  earnestness,  than  was  this 
voiceless  appeal  to  the  Hearer  of  all  prayer,  the  GOD 
of  all  sanctuaries,  the  Saviour  of  the  tempted  and 
the  sinking. 

A  gentleman  passed  up  the  store,  so  close  to  her 
desk  she  could  have  touched  his  sleeve,  but  the  bow 
ed  head  was  not  lifted.  Shut  in  from  the  outer 
scene  by  her  thronging  thoughts,  she  did  not  hear 
the  buzz  succeeding  the  silence  of  respect  or  civility 
that  had  reigned  during  his  transit  from  the  front 
door  to  Mr.  Arnold's  private  office.  On  a  busy  day 
he  might  have  come  and  gone  a  dozen  times  without 
attracting  so  much  attention.  •  •  On  this  windy  after 
noon  events  were  at  a  premium,  and  when  it  was 
whispered  from  one  to  another  that  this  distinguish 
ed-looking  personage  was  Miss  Mallory's  fiance,  and 
how  queer  it  was  that  he  should  want  to  see  Mr. 
Arnold,  and  could  it  be  that  the  counterfeit  bill  af 
fair  was  not  settled  yet  ?  his  appearance  became  an 
event,  and  one  of  considerable  magnitude.  A  por 
tentous  one,  when,  five  minutes  thereafter,  Mr.  Ar 
nold  looked  out  of  his  office-door  and  beckoned  a 
messenger,  who  forthwith  notified  Miss  Rowland 
that  she  was  wanted. 

She  started  and  changed  color  visibly — all  agreed 


92  PHEMIE'S  TEMPTATION. 

in  observing — when  the  message  was  delivered,  and 
most  of  the  spectators  were  properly  scandalized  at 
the  pretence  of  equanimity  she  immediately  recov 
ered — actually  wiping  her  pen,  laying  it  upon  the 
rack ;  closing  her  inkstand  and  shutting  up  her  day 
book,  the  blotting-paper  carefully  adjusted  between 
the  leaves,  before  she  stepped  from  her  dais,  with  her 
queenly  step  and  carriage,  and  walked  up  the  empty 
aisle,  unmindful,  or  disdainful  of  the  fact  that  every 
eye  was  upon  her. 

"  Ah !  Miss  Rowland !  Here  you  are  ! "  nodded 
Mr.  Arnold,  patronizingly,  from  his  elbow-chair,  as 
she  presented  herself  in  the  counting-room. 

His  companion  had  his  back  to  the  door,  and 
springing  up  at  this  announcement,  showed  Phemie 
Mr.  Hart's  features,  surprised,  apologetic,  and  more 
embarrassed  than  the  occasion  seemed  to  demand. 
He  set  a  chair  for  her,  and  she  declined  it  with  a 
silent  bow,  looking  to  Mr.  Arnold  for  an  explanation 
of  the  message  that  had  brought  her  hither. 

"  Zenobia  in  chains ! "  mentally  ejaculated  Mr. 
Hart,  at  sight  of  her  unintentional  pose  ;  the  haughty 
humility  of  her  erect  head  and  respectful  attitude,  in 
the  presence  of  her  superior  officer ;  the  attentive, 
inquiring  eyes,  and  the  pressure  of  the  short  upper 
lip  upon  its  fuller  fellow. 

"  Yes  ;  take  a  seat !  "  said  Mr.  Arnold,  graciously. 
"  I  took  the  liberty  of  sending  for  her,  Mr.  Hart, 
without  asking  your — ah — permission,  because  I  like 
to  rectify  a  mistake  fully  and — ah — handsomely  while 
I  am  about  it,  and  lest  this  should  slip  my  mind — we 


PREMIERS  TEMPTATION.  &5 

gentlemen  of  business  have  so  many  things  to  think 
of  that  bue  crowds  out  another,  as  I  need  not  say  to 
you,  Mr.  Hart — I — ah — thought  it  expedient  to  at 
tend  to  this  little  affair  at  once  and  without  delay. 
Mr.  Hart,  Miss  Rowland,  has  kindly  stepped  in  to 
say  that  having  learned  incidentally — as  I — ah — am 
glad  to  understand,  Miss  Rowland — I  should  have 
been  seriously  displeased  and  mortified  had  he  gained 
his  information  from  any  person"  in  my  employ,  Miss 
Rowland,  regarding  it — ah — as  a  point  of  sacred 
honor  that  my  employees  should  not  divulge  the  pri 
vate  affairs  of  this  establishment — having  learned,  as 
I  remarked,  incidentally  and  accidentally,  that  cen 
sure  has  been — ah— -cast  upon  you,  Miss  Rowland,  on 
account  of  your  summary — ah — declinature  of  a  cer 
tain  bank-note  tendered  by  Miss  Mallory,  upon  a  cer 
tain  day  in  last  month,  he — Mr.  Hart — has  gener 
ously  put  himself  to  the  trouble  of  coming  in  to — ah 
— exculpate  you  from  the  charge  of  improper  or  un 
ladylike  conduct  upon  that  occasion.  I  am  gratified  to 
hear,  Miss  Rowland,  that  your  behavior  to  Miss  Mal 
lory  was  respectful  and  your  language  less  objection 
able  than  I  was,  at  first,  given  .to  understand  " — 

"  Excuse  me  !  "  interposed  Mr.  Hart,  whose  vary 
ing  expression  from  the  beginning  of  the  harangue 
to  this  clause  would  have  been  a  diverting  study  to 
an  impartial  bystander.  "  Since  Miss  Rowland  is 
here,  allow  me  to  repeat  briefly  in  her  hearing  the 
statement  I  made  to  yourself !  " 

Phemie  had  not  availed  herself  of  her  employer's 
permission  to  sit  down,  and  Mr.  Hart  likewise  re- 


94  PREMIE'S  TEMPTATION. 

mained  standing.  He  faced  her,  now,  bending  his 
head  deferentially,  while  his  look  and  tone  were  de 
precating. 

"  It  has  reached  my  ears,  indirectly,  as  Mr.  Ar 
nold  has  stated,  that  he  had  received  a  garbled  ac 
count  of  the  transaction  to  which  he  refers.  Con 
sidering  myself,  in  some  sort,  bound  to  set  him  right, 
since  I  was  a  participant  in  the  affair,  I  dropped  in 
to  assure  him  that  no  offence  had  been  given  or 
taken.  The  note,  which  I  retain,  is  undeniably 
spurious,  and  you  would  have  been  called  purblind 
had  you  not  detected  this  at  a  glance.  How  the 
impression  got  abroad  that  Miss  Mallory  was  wounded 
by  anything  that  passed  here  at  the  time  mentioned, 
I  cannot  imagine.  All  was  fair,  business-like,  and 
polite.  It  never  entered  my  head  " — with  his  ready, 
pleasant  laugh — "  to  make  so  formal  a  matter  of  a 
trifle  as  to  request  your  attendance  during  this  in 
terview.  Had  I  surmised  that  Mr.  Arnold  had  sent 
for  you,  I  should  have  protested  strenuously  against 
troubling  you." 

"  Oh !  that  is  of  no  consequence,  I  assure  you, 
my  good  sir  !  "  Mr.  Arnold  hastened  to  say,  with  an 
oily  smile. 

He  was  a  fat  man,  who  held  his  head  very  far  back 
and  his  chest  very  far  forward,  and  had  a  way  of 
joining  his  finger-tips  when  he  talked,  and  who 
loved  to  hear  the  rumble  of  his  own  swelling  periods 
better  than  any  other  sound,  except  the  chink  of 
gold  and  the  rustle  of  crisp  treasury  notes.  "  Miss 
Rowland  is  used  to  the  discipline  of  a  well-ordered 


PHEMIE^S  TEMPTATION.  95 

establishment,  and  I  take  pleasure  in  saying,  Mr. 
Hart,  that — ah — in  the  main,  I  may  say  uniformly 
— her  manner  of  discharging  the  duties  of  her  place 
is — ah — exemplary.  I  had  no  doubt,  even  while  I 
questioned  the  expediency  of  her  action  with  regard 
to  Miss  Mallory — or  rather  whether  her  manner  had 
been — ah — altogether  judicious — I  had  no  doubt, 
meanwhile,  that  she  meant  well.  But,  as  I  had  oc 
casion  to  remind  her,  when  I— ah — gently  reproved 
her  for  her  brusqueness — such  I  conceived  her  fault 
or  indiscretion  to  have  been — as  I  said  to  her,  sir — 
manner  goes  as  far  in  this  world  as  principle." 

"  I  should  be  loath  to  admit  that,"  said  Mr.  Hart. 
"  Although,  were  it  true,  Miss  Rowland  would  have  as 
little  to  apprehend  as  any  one  I  know.  Miss  Mal 
lory,  I  wish  you  both  to  understand,  will  sustain  me 
in  this  assertion.  Your  brother  is  better,  your  friend 
Miss  Darcy  tells  me,"  he  subjoined  to  Phernie,  in  a 
more  familiar,  but  still  very  respectful  tone. 

"  He  is  !  "  Phemie  could  not  have  articulated  an 
other  syllable  without  relaxing  the  iron  rein  she  held 
over  herself. 

A  pause  ensued,  awkward  as  the  rest  of  the  scene 
had  been  to  two  of  those  engaged  in  it. 

Phemie  concentrated  her  forces.  "  Have  you  any 
thing  more  to  say  to  me,  sir?"  she  queried  of  Mr. 
Arnold,  as  a  drilled  butler  might  ask  his  orders  for 
the  day. 

"  I  believe  not,  Miss  Rowland.  I  think  she  com 
prehends  us  now,  Mr.  Hart !  I  do  not  regret — ah — 
upon  the  whole,  that  this  trivial  misunderstanding 


96  *     PREMIERS  TEMPTATION. 


has  arisen.  It  may  —  it  will,  I  trust,  be  a  lesson,  a  — 
ah  —  moral  guide-board  to  you  for  the  future.  You 
can  return  to  your  desk,  Miss  Rowland." 

Phemie  grew  an  inch  taller  in  turning  to  Mr. 
Hart.  "  I  thank  you  for  your  kindness,  sir  !  " 

She  would  have  departed,  then,  with  a  bow  to 
both,  but  the  latter  gentleman  laid  his  hand  upon 
the  door.  "  I  cannot  let  you  go  without  gainsaying 
the  idea  that  you  are  under  any  obligation  to  Miss 
Mallory  or  myself.  I  have  performed  a  simple  act  of 
justice.  You,  or  any  other  conscientious  person, 
would  do  the  like  for  me.  I  am  heartily  ashamed 
of  having  said  so  much  about  a  trifle  —  a  mere  noth 
ing.  The  only  reparation  you  can  make  us  for  the 
regret  we  feel  at  having  unwittingly  caused  you  an 
noyance  is  to  forget  the  whole  transaction  as  fast  as 
you  can.  Good-afternoon  !  "  He  unclosed  the  door, 
and  bowed  her  out. 

When  she  had  had  time  to  regain  her  position  at 
her  desk,  he  followed  in  her  footsteps,  raising  his 
hat  in  passing  her,  although  her  e}7es  were  bent  upon 
her  reopened  book.  One  of  the  bolder  of  her  fellow- 
workwomen  —  the  young  lady  who  had  shirked  the 
task  of  enlightening  Miss  Mallory  with  respect  to  the 
character  of  the  $20  bill  —  presently  sidled  up  to  her, 
her  curiosity  boiling  over. 

"  What  did  he  want  with  you  ?  " 

"  Who  ?  "  Phemie  raised  her  eyes.  They  were 
heavy-lidded,  but  they  stared  the  catechist  full  in 
the  face. 

"Mr.  Hart!" 


PHEMIE'S  TEMPTATION.  97 

«  He  didn't  want  me." 

"  Who  did,  then  ?     Who  sent  for  you  ? " 

«  Mr.  Arnold." 

"  Oh !  But  Mr.  Hart  was  in  there,  all  the  time, 
wasn't  he  ?  " 

"  There  was  a  gentleman  in  the  office  who  called 
to  see  Mr.  Arnold,  I  believe." 

"  You  didn't  know  him,  then  ?  He  is  Mr.  Hart, 
the  publisher — firm  of  Mallory  &  Hart.  He  is  go 
ing  to  marry  Miss  Clara  Mallory.  That  was  him 
with  her  the  day  you  got  into  that  fuss  with  her. 
It's  funny  }rou  didn't  remember  him.  We  had 
u  notion — Amy  Jaynes  and  I — that  he  called  to 
talk  to  Mr.  Arnold  about  that,  and  that  you  were  catch 
ing  it  again.  The  story  has  got  abroad  all  over  -town. 
Did  you  ever  know  so  much  ado  about  nothing,  as 
that  conceited  minx  has  made  over  what  she  had 
ought  to  be  ashamed  to  speak  of?  If  I  was  caught 
passing  counterfeit  money,  I  wouldn't  be  the  one 
to  trumpet  it  everywhere.  People  wouldn't  judge 
poor  girls  like  us  as  charitably  as  they  do  her, 
neither.  You  say  Mr.  Hart  didn't  come  to  take  up 
her  quarrel  ?  " 

"He  did  not." 

"  He  is  a  handsome  fellow,  and  they  say  making 
money  fast,  besides  being  very  smart,  very  learned, 
and  intelligent.  She  isn't  over-stocked  with  brains, 
I  should  judge  from  her  face.  She  is  going  to  do 
well.  They  are  to  be  married  this  fall.  She  has  be 
gun  to  get  her  wedding  outfit  already." 

Phemie  turned  a  leaf,  and  took  another  penful  of  ink. 
5 


98  PREMIERS  TEMPTATION. 

"Lucy  Harris!"  called  one  of  her  companions, 
impatient  to  learn  the  result  of  her  investigations, 
and  the  bookkeeper  was  left  in  her  former  isolation. 

The  wind  had  not  abated  when  the  store  was  clos 
ed,  and  Phemie  started  for  home.  The  sharp  flint- 
dust  torn  up  from  the  pavements  made  her  eyea 
smart  and  her  face  tingle ;  the  roistering  gale  twist 
ed  her  skirts  about  her  feet  until  she  could  hardly 
'stagger  onward,  and  fought  with  her  for  the  posses 
sion  of  her  shawl.  Miss  Darcy  should  have  chosen 
the  evening  for  a  promenade,  if  she  liked  weather 
that  gave  one  something  to  do  while  he  was  walking. 
Phemie's  frame  of  mind  was  the  reverse  of  enjoy 
ment.  She  had  spirit,  as  her  friend  had  stated,  yet 
she  was  seldom  irritable.  When  her  temper  explod 
ed,  it  was  under  great  provocation,  and  it  went  off 
with  a  concussion  that  made  clean  work  of  all  that 
stood  in  the  way,  whereas,  your  irritable  man,  or 
"nervous"  woman,  spits,  and  fizzes,  and  sighs,  like 
a  train  of  wet  gunpowder.  She  was  not  up  to  the 
going-off  point,  to-night.  She  had  been  very  angry 
— dangerously  near  speaking  out  her  mind  fully  and 
strongly,  while  the  sluggish  channel  of  Mr.  Arnold's 
talk  meandered  among  such  rocks  as  "improper 
and  unladylike  conduct,"  and  affirmations  that  her 
demeanor  to  Clara  Mallory  had  been  "  respectful " 
and  her  language  "  not  objectionable."  Her  tongue 
ached  to  tell  him  that  she  was  disgusted  with  the 
whole  subject,  and  above  all  other  things  pertaining 
to  it,  with  himse.lf.  That  Clara  Mallory  had  as 
slender  claims  to  the  name  of  ladv  as  he  had  to  that 


PREMIERS  TEMPTATION.  99 

of  a  gentleman,  with  much  more  that  was  unsea 
soned  and  unseasonable.  Mr.  Hart's  tact  and  kind 
ness  had  saved  her  from  the  pitfall  opening  at  her 
feet.  She  had  time,  during  his  address,  to  peer 
down  into  its  depths,  and  to  recoil  from  the  vision  of 
the  ills  she  had  nearly  brought  upon  her  home-circle. 
For  herself,  she  said,  desperately,  she  did  not  care. 
She  would  as  soon  sink  as  swim,  since  floating  was 
such  weary,  weary  work.  A  cynical  fatalism  had 
paralyzed  Faith,  as  repeated  discouragements  had 
stifled  Hope. 

"  One  gains  so  little  by  struggling !  "  she  was  say 
ing,  as  she  turned  the  corner  of  a  street  in  which  the 
winds  from  every  quarter  and  of  every  name  seemed 
to  have  been  poured.  ^Eolus's  bag  turned  upside 
down,  in  fact,  so  fiercely  did  they  tear,  and  shriek, 
and  rave  up  and  down,  and  across  from  either  side 
of  the  broad  thoroughfare,  given  up,  for  the  time, 
to  its  nocturnal  revels. 

She  stopped  under  a  lamp-post  to  get  the  breath 
which  had  been  snatched  from  her  lungs  by  the  first 
gust,.and  just  at  that  instant  a  carriage  passed.  She 
had  a  glimpse  of  Clara  Mallory  on  the  Lack  seat, 
with  flowers  in  her  hair  and  a  white  opera-cloak  over 
her  shoulders,  then  a  gentleman  leaned  past  her  to 
draw  up  the  glass.  It  was  Mr.  Hart.  She  recog 
nized  the  oval  face  and  the  sweeping  beard  as 
quickly  and  truly  as  if  they  had  belonged  to  her 
lover,  and  not  to  another  woman's. 

Her  lover  !  Pshaw !  What  business  had  she 
with  such  a  thought  ?  Like  the  rest  of  Heaven's 


100  PHEMIE'S  TEMPTATION. 

choice  gifts,  love  and  lovers  were  the  portion  of  the 
rich  and  indolent ;  the  favorites  of  the  Fates,  those 
who  had  but  to  sit  still  and  let  blessings  be  rained 
into  their  laps.  When  the  poor  married,  if  was  that 
they  might  be  less  poor — in  their  accepted  phrase, 
"  better  themselves."  It  would  be  a  sorry  change, 
indeed,  that  did  not  better  her ! 

Astronomical  calculations,  if  one  were  so  foolish 
or  so  knowledge-mad  as  to  attempt  them  that  evening, 
would  have  been  prosecuted  under  very  disadvan 
tageous*  circumstances,  the  visible  heavens  looking 
as  if  all  the  dust  hurled  upward  during  the  day  had 
lodged  there,  and  the  housewifely  habits  of  the  old 
woman  who  was  tossed  up  in  a  blanket,  had  met 
with  no  imitators  in  the  upper  circle.  The  planets 
blinked  fast  and  hard,  like  eyes  with  cinders  in  them, 
and  like  them,  too,  occasionally  shut  up  altogether 
for  a  minute  or  two,  while  the  lesser  lights  only 
emitted  a  struggling  ray  every  four  or  five  minutes. 
But  there  is  excellent  reason  for  believing  that,  for 
this  one  hour  at  least,  Joe  Bonney's  lucky  star  was 
in  the  ascendant,  and  that  it  was  this  propitious  in 
fluence  which  brought  him  around  the  corner  at  such 
an  angle  that  he  had  a  view  of  Phemie's  face  while 
the  lamp-rays  were  upon  it. 

"  Miss  Phemie !  "  he  ejaculated,  in  mingled  de 
light  at  the  meeting,  and  concern  at  her  probable 
discomfort.  "  This  is  a  very  disagreeable  night  for 
a  lady  to  be  out.  I  was  just  going  up  to  your  house. 
May  I  walk  along  with  you  ? " 

"  If  you  like,"  said   Phemie,  laconically.     "  The 


PHEMIE'8  TEMPTATION.  101 

wind  is  very  disagreeable !  "  she  was  constrained  to 
add,  as  a  tremendous  buffet  upon  her  shoulders  made 
her  stop  a  second  time  to  recover  her  equilibrium. 

"  Won't  you  take  my  arm  ?  Do!  "  entreated  Joe, 
backing  up  manfully  against  the  squall. 

It  would  be  less  ludicrous  than  staggering  along 
separately  and  jostling  each  other,  at  every  third  step, 
Phemie  concluded,  and  she  accepted  his  offer.  Joe 
was  of  slender  build,  and  no  athlete,  but  he  sustained 
the  shocks  of  the  blast,  after  this  conjunction  of 
forces,  in  a  manner  that  shed  credit  upon  hie  will 
and  his  ability  to  take  his  own  part  and  that  of  his 
companion  against  the  adverse  winds  of  March  or 
Fortune.  He  was  a  muscular  Gibraltar  in  resisting 
odds  that  nearly  swept  Phemie  away. 

"  Suppose  we  turn  up  that  cross  street !  "  she  sug 
gested,  at  length.  "It  is  narrower,  and  more  shel 
tered  than  the  one  we  are  in.  We  ought  to  be  able 
to  walk  with  comparative  comfort  under  the  lee  of 
those  tall  houses." 

Joe  assented.  "  Not  that  I  mind  the  wind  a  bit," 
he  said,  more  gayly  than  lie  was  accustomed  to  speak 
in  her  hearing.  "  But,  as  you  say,  those  buildings 
ought  to  keep  off  some  of  it." 

"  You  breast  the  storm  well !  "  Phemie  next  re 
marked,  for  the  sake  of  saying  something.  He  was 
very  considerate  and  attentive,  and  she  was  not  in 
the  mood  to  be  ungracious  to  anything  that  liked 
her,  or  showed  her  kindness.  So  she  aroused  herself 
a  little  to  entertain  him.  The  fight  with  the  wind 
had  bereft  her  of  the  remnant  of  strength  and  viva- 


102  PREMIERS  TEMPTATION. 

city  left  after  the  day's  strife  and  duties.  She  was 
languid  and  tremulous  when  they  gained  the  lee  of 
the  long  row  of  lofty  houses,  quite  willing  to  walk 
slowly,  and  making  more  use  of  Joe's  arm  than  she 
was  aware  of. 

"  Do  I  ?  "  he  replied  to  her  careless  compliment. 
He  was  tremulous,  too — with  delight.  "  It  is  easy 
to  bear  any  storm  when  I  am  with  you ! " 

The  telling  first  step  was  taken,  the  plunge  over, 
after  which  the  most  icy  shower-bath  is  nothing,  or 
next  to  nothing. 

He  went  on  very  fast.  "  I  should  be  a  very  dif 
ferent  person — stronger,  better,  happier,  if  this  could 
always  be,  Phemie.  Don't  draw  your  hand  away. 
I  -must  talk  to  you  about  it.  I  know  I  am  not  your 
equal.  I  never  saw  the  man — or  woman,  either,  for 
that  matter — who  was.  I  have  loved  you  for  four 
years  as  I  never  loved  anybody  else,  as  I  don't  believe 
anybody  else  will,  or  can  love  you.  It's  worship, 
out  and  out.  That's  what  it  is !  I  don't  expect 
you  to  feel  the  same  for  me.  It  isn't  in  the  nature 
of  things  that  you  should.  But  if  you  would  only 
tell  me  that  I  might  keep  on  loving  you,  and  let  me 
serve  you  besides — live  for  you  and  take  care  of  you 
and  Albert  and  your  mother !  I  can  see  you  are 
working  yourself  to  death,  and  it  pretty  nearly  kills 
me  to  know  it.  Let  me  help  you,  Phemie !  I  can 
do  it  easily.  I  am  not  rich,  but  I  am  getting  on  well 
in  business.  I  can  give  you  a  nice  little  home,  now, 
and  maybe,  by  and  by,  a  handsome  one,  and  you 
shall  live  like  the  real  lady  you  are.  I  am  not  a 


PHEMIE'S  TEMPTATION.  103 

scholar  or  a  student,  and  you  are;  but  you  shall  have 
all  the  books  you  want,  and  plenty  of  time  to  study 
them.  The  more  of  that  sort  of  thing  you  do,  the 
prouder  I  shall  be  of  you.  I  won't  tease  you  for  an 
answer  now.  I  am  afraid  I  know  what  it  would  be, 
if  you  were  to  give  it,  without  considering  what  I 
have  said.  For  my  part,  I  have  thought  of  it,  day 
and  night,  until  I  have  dared  to  hope  that,  if  you 
ever  could  be  brought  to  understand  how  much  I 
love  you,  and  how  near  your  happiness  lies  to  my 
heart,  you  might  learn  to  like  me.  It  does  seem  to 
me  that  something  ought  to  be  accomplished  by  love 
so  strong  as  mine,  and  love  that  has  lasted  so  long !  " 

He  choked  up  here,  and  shook  from  head  to  foot, 
as  he  had  not  quivered  in  the  rudest  gusts  they  had 
encountered  in  the  wider  street  they  had  left. 

Phemie  was  dumb.  Astonishment  at  his  vehe 
mence  was  primarily  tinged  with  anger  at  his. pre 
sumption,  but  before  he  finished  his  confession,  both 
feelings  gave  way  before  a  gush  of  pity  and  softness 
she  might  well  hesitate  to  betray.  His  was  love — 
ardent,  honest,  and  tried.  She  believed  him  when 
he  named  it  worship ;  believed,  without  the  uprising 
of  contempt  she  had  expressed  to  Olive,  who  had 
always  stood  his  friend.  Perhaps  her  sister  was 
nearer  right  than  herself  in  her  estimate  of  his 
character.  She  would  be  just  to  him  so  far  as  to 
reverence  his  generous  readiness  to  assume  the  sup 
port  of  her  mother  and  helpless  brother.  Their  wel 
fare — a  home  and  comfortable  subsistence  would  bo 
secured  by  her  marriage  with  Joe  Bonney,  and  what 


104  PREMIERS  TEMPTATION. 

had  she  to  live  for  besides  the  hope  of  caring  for 
them?  She  believed  her  suitor,  furthermore,  when 
he  promised  her  the  leisure  and  means  for  prosecu 
ting  the  studies  she  loved,  and  which  she  could  not 
now  pursue.  Had  she  not  decided,  awhile  ago,  that 
the  privations  of  the  poor  meant  more  than  physical 
needs?  that  those  who  were  destined  to  walk  the 
pavements  alone,  after  dark,  on  stormy,  as  on  fine 
nights,  while  others,  no  younger  and  no  fairer,  rolled 
by  in  luxurious  chariots  guarded  by  love  against  the 
chance  of  discomfort  or  alarm,  must,  in  the  very 
consistency  of  appointed  dispensations,  forego  other 
delights  which  were  the  prerogatives  of  carriage 
beauties  ?  The  worker  on  the  pavement  would  like 
to  have  a  surplus  of  money,  fine  clothes,  and  a  beau 
tiful  home.  Since  these  were  not  hers,  philosophy 
and  religion  joined  in  bidding  her  content  herself 
with  such  things  as  she  had.  Was  not  the  principle 
applicable,  likewise,  to  the  formation  of  matrimonial 
ties? 

This  man  was  many  removes — how  many  she 
would  not  trust  herself  to  remember — from  her  ideal 
lord  and  master.  But  the  ideal  was  not  attainable ; 
perchance  had  never  had  a  being,  except  in  a  girl's 
lush  fancy.  If  he  were  a  resident  of  the  next  block 
to  her  own,  the  probability  was  that  he  would  never 
vouchsafe  her  a  glance  or  thought,  whereas,  she  was 
Joe's  divinity,  and  there  was  a  spice  of  comfort  in 
the  thought  that  she  was  anybody's  divinity,  after 
•the  slights  and  indignities,  and,  most  offensive  of  all, 
the  patronage  to  which  she  had  been  subjected  of  late. 


PHEMIE1 8  TEMPTATION.  105 

They  had  walked  several  blocks  while  these  fan 
cies  and  arguments  tore  through  her  mind  with  the 
speed  and  force  of  the  wind.  It  was  a  crisis  in  her 
existence,  and  she  knew  it.  It  had  overtaken  her  at 
a  moment  when  she  was  incompetent  to  decide  any 
question  rationally,  and  she  did  not  lose  sight  of 
this.  Everything  conspired  to  sway  her.  in  one  di 
rection.  The  chill  and  loneliness  of  the  night; 
hunger  and  fatigue;  her  solicitude  respecting  Char 
lotte  ;  Albert's  hopeless  blindness ;  the  uncertain 
tenure  by  which  she  felt  she  held  her  situation ; 
even  the  glimpse  she  had  had  of  her  former  friend 
and  her  fiance — tended  to  enhance  the  attractions 
of  the  snug  home  offered  her,  and  the  release  from 
labors  which  were  both  servile  and  poorly  compen 
sated. 

They  were  beyond  the  sheltering  buildings,  and 
again  in  a  broad  thoroughfare  much  frequented  by 
night,  as  well  as  by  day,  when  the  weather  was  tol 
erable.  Phemie  must  speak.  Civility  required  it, 
if  she  were  not  prompted  by  regard  for  her  wooer's 
feelings,  the  desire  to  lessen  the  weight  of  his  sus 
pense. 

"I  was  totally  unprepared  for  this,"  she  began, 
in  a  tone  so  husky  and  strained  that  she  paused  to 
change  the  key. 

At  that  instant  a  woman  came  down  the  sidewalk 
toward  them,  and  they  swerved  to  let  her  pass. 
She  eyed  them  openly  and  curiously,  as  they  met, 
and  Phemie  could  not  avoid  seeing  her  distinctly. 
She  wore  a  gay  velvet  hat,  with  a  flaunting  feather ; 
5* 


106  PHEMIKS  TEMPTATION. 

a  silk  dress  that  trailed  upon  the  pavement,  a  light 
cloak,  fitting  tightly  to  a  full  bust  and  slender  waist. 
Her  eyes  were  bold  as  her  walk,  which  was  some 
thing  between  a  strut  and  a  slide,  and  her  mouth 
was  set  in  a  smile,  false  and  fixed  as  were  the  roses 
on  her  hollow  cheeks. 

Womanhood,  unperverted  by  worldly  or  vicious 
teachings,  is  a  safe  and  ready  guide,  and  Phemie's 
was  prompt  with  her  lesson. 

"Where  would  be  the  difference  between  her  and 
the  unloving  wife,  bought  with  the  liTfe  of  a  home 
and  an  easy  livelihood?"  interrogated  the  Mentor. 
"  Is  it  virtue,  or  an  empty  prejudice  of  society,  that 
distinguishes  the  one  from  the  other?  Honest  pov 
erty — legalized  infamy — these  are  your  alternatives." 

Phemie  held  up  her  head,  as  she  could  never  have 
lifted  it  as  Joe  Bonney's  perjured  wife.  "  Do  not 
think  me  ungrateful  for  your  generous  kindness  ;  for 
the  honor  done  me  by  your  love  ;  for  your  unselfish 
forgetfulness  of  the  weight  of  the  burdens  you  are 
ready  to  assume  for  my  sake.  But  I  cannot  marry 
you.  I  will  be  frank  as  yourself.  Nothing  but  mis 
ery  could  result  from  a  union  where  there  was  not 
love  on  both  sides.  And  I  do  not  love  you.  The 
probability  is  that  I  shall  never  marry.  I  have  long 
accustomed  myself  to  believe  this.  If  we  would  be 
friends  for  the  future,  this  subject  had  better  not 
be  referred  to  again  by  either  of  us.  I  should  be 
sorry  to  know  that  you  could  ever  be  anything  less 
than  my  friend.  You  can  never  be  more." 

Joe  had  pulled  his  hat  forward  upon  his  eyebrows, 


PREMIERS  TEMPTATION.  107 

and  Phemie  felt  the  rise  and  fall  of  his  chest  against 
the  wrist  resting  within  his  arm ;  heard  a  queer 
sound,  like  a  strangled  "cluck,"  in  his  throat. 

It  is  undignified  and  babyish  for  a  man  to  cry  be 
cause  his  love  is  refused.  Yet  no  one  calls  those 
weak  tears  that  escape  the  father's  eyes  beside  the 
grave  of  his  first-born.  Joe  was  burying  his  love  in 
hot  haste,  because  Phemie  had  commanded  it — as 
who  had  a  better  right  to  do  ?  She  ruled  him  in 
this  as  in  everything  else.  Had  she  married  him, 
she  would  have  become  the  keeper  of  his  conscience 
— of  the  archives  of  thought  and  feeling,  as  well  as 
the  arbiter  of  his  actions.  We  need  no  seer  to  point 
out  the  numerous  train  of  ills  that  would  have  en 
sued  from  this  unnatural  state  of  things,  this  total 
reverse  of  the  laws  that  should  obtain  in  well-ordered 
households.  Phemie  was  a  truer  friend  to  Joe  than 
the  love-blinded  youth  ever  supposed — a  benefactress, 
who  saved  him,  by  her  timely  negative,  from  an  ig 
nominious  fate.  The  proverbial  ingratitude  of  short 
sighted  mortals  is  the  only  explanation  of  the  cir 
cumstance  that  he  suffered  intensely  under  the  kindly 
operation,  and  was  disposed,  after  the  fashion  of 
weak-minded  swains,  to  curse  his  stars,  and  wish, 
firstly,  that  he  had  never  been  born  ;  secondly,  that 
he  had  stayed  at  home  on  this  particular  night,  the 
influence  of  his  natal  planet  to  the  contrary  notwith 
standing  ;  thirdly  and  lastly,  and  chiefly — that  he 
were  dead.  That  was — if  he  could  only  expire 
quietly  in  some  retired  street,  and  be  buried  without 
a  coronerb  inquest  or  newspaper  notice,  so  that 


108  PREMIE'S  TEMPTATION. 

Phemie  should  not  hear  what  had  become  of  him,  or 
accuse  herself  of  having  hurried  him  to  his  untimely 
end. 

Mark  !  he  did  not  wish  for  the  fifteen-millionth 
part  of  a  second  that  he  had  never  known  and  loved 
her.  Still  less  did  he  desire  that  she  might  endure 
one  pang  like  the  least  of  those  that  were  riving  his 
heart.  In  these  respects  he  proved  himself  to  be 
yet  more  feeble  of  intellect  and  abject  in  spirit  than 
he  had  done  by  sobbing  over  her  calm  and  kindly 
rejection  of  his  suit. 

They  reached  the  foot  of  Mrs.  Rowland's  steps. 
They  were  a  wooden  flight,  and  Joe  recollected,  with 
a  despairing  thrill,  the  three  snowy  marble  ones 
conducting  to  the  also  snow-white  portal  of  his  two- 
story-brick  in  the  air.  The  end  of  their  uncomfortable 
walk  was  here,  and  this  miserable  business  must  be 
wound  up  for  good  (or  bad)  and  all. 

"  I  might  have  foreseen  what  was  to  be  the  end  of 
all  my  foolish  hopes,"  said  he,  as  Phemie  withdrew  her 
hand  from  his  arm.  "  You  couldn't  have  acted  differ 
ently.  I  can  see  it  all  now,  plain  enough.  You  needn't 
be  afraid  of  my  bothering  you  ever  again  about  the 
matter.  I  don't  want  that  you  should  come  to  dislike 
me,  outright.  I'll  not  speak  to  you  of  love  after  this, 
but  as  to  stopping  caring  for  you,  you  musn't  ask  that. 
Unless  I  was  to  stop  breathing!  which  " — with  a  pa 
thos  of  pain  that  touched  Phemie  strangely — "  would 
be  the  best  and  most  comfortable  thing  all  around  for 
me  to  do  in  the  circumstances !  " 

"  You  shall  not  say  that  1 "  Phemie  fingers  slid  into 


PHEMIE'S  TEMPTATION.  109 

his  in  unthinking  and  sisterly  compassion.  "  You 
have  a  work  to  do  in  life,  and  you  will  be  very  use 
ful  and  happy  some  day." 

"  Maybe  so.  If  I  ever  have  a  chance  to  do  any 
thing  to  make  you  happy,  I  may  grow  to  be  content 
ed.  I  won't  keep  you  standing  in  the  cold.  Let 
me  ring  the  bell  for  you  !  Good-night !  I  am  not 
fit  to  meet  any  of  them,  just  yet.  Don't  fret  over 
what  you  have  done.  You've  been  kind  and  honor 
able.  I  respect  you  more  than  I  ever  did  before. 
Good-by ! " 

Phemie  sent  a  pitying  look  after  him.  He  was 
like  his  cousin  Seth — tall  and  angular.  The  speci 
ality  of  the  family,  physically,  seemed  to  be  angles, 
as  many  and  as  sharp  as  the  human  frame  was  ca 
pable  of  displaying.  Joe  "  clumped  "  in  his  gait ;  his 
coat  did  not  fit  his  figure,  and  it  was  not  the  tailor's 
fault  that  it  hung  in  ungraceful  folds.  Phemie  could 
not  imagine  him  arrayed  in  chain  armor,  or  steel- 
plated  corslet  and  greaves,  visor  down,  clasping  his 
steed  with  his  mailed  knees  and  careering  like  a  whirl 
wind  against  his  opponent,  to  establish  her  claim  as 
Queen  of  Love  and  Beauty,  on  the  day  of  the  Tourna 
ment,  but  she  said,  within  her  aching  heart,  while  her 
eyes  filled  with  tears,  that  not  many  of  the  world's 
knighted  heroes  carried  within  their  bosoms  such 
wealth  of  true  and  gentle  chivalry. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

"  That  Care  and  Trial  seem  at  last, 

Through  Mem'ry's  sunset  air, 
Like  mountain-ranges  overpast, 
In  purple  distance  fair. 

That  all  the  jarring  notes  of  Life 

Seem  blending  in  a  psalm ; 
And  all  the  angles  of  its  strife 

Slow  rounding  into  calm. 

And.  so  the  shadows  fall  apart, 

And  so  the  west  winds  play ; 
And  all  the  windows  of  my  heart 

I  open  to  the  day." 

[HITS  recited  Phemie  Rowland,  sitting  upon 
a    gray   rock,    carpeted   with    lichens    and 
brambles,  and  forming  the  rugged  front  of 
a  hill  that  overlooked  the  country  surround 
ing  the  Darcy  homestead. 

The  farm-house  was  full,  that  sunny  August. 
Phemie  had  engaged  board  there  for  Charlotte,  and 
Miss  Darcy  for  Albert,  from  the  middle  of  July  to 
the  first  of  September.  Charlotte's  scruples  to  this 
arrangement  were  overcome  by  the  representations 
of  her  sister  and  her  friend,  setting  forth  the  neces- 


PREMIERS  TEMPTATION.  Ill 

sity  that  Albert  should  have  an  attendant,  and  the 
impossibility  of  Phemie's  obtaining  a  furlough  from 
her  desk  duties  of  sufficient  length  for  her  to  under 
take  the  office  of  custodian.  Thither,  too,  came  Miss 
Darcy,  early  in  August,  and,  in  response  to  her  in 
vitation,  while  resolutely  insisting  upon  entering 
herself  as  a  paid  boarder,  Pheinie  joined  the  circle,  a 
fortnight  later. 

Mr.  Arnold  allowed  each  of  his  employees  a  vaca 
tion  in  the  dull  season — average  duration  one  week ; 
but,  "in  consideration  of  Miss  Rowland's  zealous  ap 
plication  to  business  during  the  past  twelve  months," 
and  the  fact  that  the  season  was  unusually  quiet — it 
might  be  said  to  be  fast  asleep — he  granted  her  leave 
of  absence  for  ten  days.  Mrs.  Rowland  had  been 
out  of  town  since  June,  visiting  relatives  of  her  own 
and  some  of  her  husband's,  in  her  native  State. 
She  was  not  needed  at  home  while  the  family  was  so 
small,  she  argued,  and  she  grew  younger  and  strong 
er,  more  forgetful  of  the  sorrows  of  her  widowhood, 
more  tenderly  alive  to  the  memories  of  her  happy 
youth,  each  day  of  her  sojourn  among  the  scenes  of 
her  early  life.  In  her  decent,  well-kept  weeds,  she 
looked  and  felt  the  lady  in  her  association  with  ac 
quaintances  who  had  not  witnessed  the  meanness  of 
her  home;  were  not  privy  to  the  secrets  of  the  pinch 
ing,  saving,  and  turning  that  entered  into  the 
method  of  her  existence  there.  The  Seth  Mandells 
were  also  rusticating  in  a  village  connected  with  the 
town  by  rail,  and  near  enough  to  allow  the  husband 
and  father  to  keep  an  eye  upon  his  fleshly  treasures. 


112  PREMIE'S  TEMPTATION. 

It  was  Seth  Junior's  second  summer,  and  the  season 
was  a  trying  one  for  babies.  Hence  their  Hegira. 

Phemie  and  Olive  were  not  lonely  or  idle  during 
the  heated  term.  Mr.  Arnold  trumpeted,  with  in 
finite  pomp  and  circumstance,  the  humanity  that 
impelled  him  to  set  the  example  of  closing  his  estab 
lishment  at  seven  o'clock  on  the  long,  hot  afternoons, 
when  nobody  came  to  buy ;  when  his  stock  boasted 
nothing  but  styles  three  months  old,  if  buyers  had 
been  numerous,  and  when  the  useless  consumption 
of  gas  through  the  evening  would  have  been  worse 
than  a  dead  loss.  "Without  stopping  to  question  or 
to  praise  his  motives  for  the  measure,  Phemie  re 
joiced  in  the  leisure  it  afforded  her  for  the  work  she 
had  undertaken  at  Miss  Darcy's  instance.  She 
would  hurry  home  through  the  summer  sunsets  to 
the  supper  punctual  Olive  had  ready  by  the  time  she 
could  lay  aside  her  hat,  and,  indifferent  to  the  in 
viting  influences  of  star-lit  heavens  and  cool  night 
breezes,  settle  herself  at  her  desk  before  the  twilight 
changed  from  purple  to  gray. 

Olive  had  her  associates  and  her  pleasures. 
Moonlight  excursions  by  land  and  upon  the  water 
were  in  vogue  that  year,  and  she  never  said  "Nay," 
when  her  young  friends  solicited  her  attendance 
upon  these.  Phemie  was  too  happy  at  her  work  to 
miss  her,  and  there  was  no  sense  in  moping  at  home 
when  one  might  be  enjoying  herself  abroad. 

Phemie  yielded  a  hearty  assent  to  this  proposition. 
She  was  easier  in  mind  when  Olive  was  off,  walking, 
riding,  and  boating,  in  company  that  might  not  be 


PEEMIW8  TEMPTATION.  113 

particularly  refined ;  which  was  the  reverse  of  aris 
tocratic,  but  which  was  merry,  perfectly  respectable, 
and  decorous.  She  could  give  herself  up  to  her 
studies,  then,  with  no  remorseful  fears  lest  her  sister 
might  be  ennuyee  by  her  silence  and  abstraction. 
Her  conversational  treatise  progressed  famously. 
She  worked  at  it  with  a  will  that  was  soon  delight. 
When  finished,  she  dared  hope  it  would  satisfy  her 
publishers,  and  almost  herself. 

The  first  call  Mr.  Hart  paid  after  Albert's  resto 
ration  to  comparative  health  had  reference  to  this, 
and  it  furnished  the  ample  apology  for  many  more. 
There  were  other  treatises  and  text-books  to  be  con 
sulted  in  the  preparation  of  hers,  and  these  he  sup 
plied  as  fast  as  she  required  them — faster — for  he 
often  brought  volumes  of  which  she  had  never  heard, 
upon  the  remote  possibility  that  she  might  cull  a 
fact,  an  experiment,  or  theory  from  their  pages. 
Professional  interest  in  her  undertaking  may  have 
been  the  basis  of  his  anxiety  lest  incessant  applica 
tion  should  injure  her  health.  He  imagined  that 
her  color  was  fading — that  her  form  was  less  full — 
and  he  expressed  something  of  this  solicitude  to  the 
object  of  it.  She  met  his  fears  with  a  laugh,  the 
glad  ring  of  which  did  not  allay  his  fears,  and  he 
cast  about  for  means  of  relieving  the  strain  upon 
mind  and  body. 

Upon  two  balmy  evenings,  when  the  air  was 
steeped  in  perfume  and  moonbeams,  a  carriage  drew 
up  to  the  door,  with  a  note  from  Mr.  Hart  request 
ing  the  sisters  to  use  it  as  if  it  were  their  own,  and, 


114r  PHEMIE'S  TEMPTATION. 

a  week  later,  he  came  in  person  to  invite  them  to 
share  a  long  drive  with  him.  More  than  once, 
more  than  thrice,  the  publisher  had  persuaded  his 
interesting  employee  to  walk  with  him  for  an  hour 
before  the  evening's  labor  commenced — their  saunter 
lying  beside  the  swift  river,  or  in  the  spacious  pub 
lic  parks,  where  the  murmur  of  fountains  mingled 
with  the  laughter  of  children,  and  where  both  forgot 
the  unfinished  MS.  and  talked  less  of  chemistry  than 
of  poetry. 

Perhaps,  however,  their  pleasantest  interviews 
were  in  the  small  back  parlor,  now  used  \>j  Phemie 
as  a  library  and  study,  and  furnished  with  extreme 
simplicity.  The  floor  was  covered  with  straw  mat 
ting  ;  there  was  an  old  easy  chair  draped  with  white 
dimity;  a  cherry-wood  writing-desk,  and,  against 
the  wall  at  one  end,  an  ancient  book-case,  overflow 
ing  with  the  remnants  of  a  once  noble  library  ;  a 
high  chair  on  which  Phemie  sat  to  write,  and  a 
darkly-purple  heliotrope  in  the  solitary  window.  Over 
this  last  Olive  had  trained  morning-glories  and  Ma 
deira  vines,  and  there  was  always,  after  nightfall,  a 
breeze  from  the  river  to  set  these  to  whispering  and 
dancing.  The  publisher  liked  luxury,  and  not  even 
a  hermit  could  have  objected  to  the  appointments  of 
this  tiny  sanctum  as  luxurious ;  }Tet  when  he — the 
publisher,  not  the  eremite — leaned  back  lazily  in  the 
old  elbowvchair,  and  surveyed  the  grnnd  creature 
opposite  him,  her  neat  print-dress  setting  off  her 
'  beauty,  as  the  plainest  setting  often  best  reveals  the 
glory  of  the  gem ;  heard  her  round,  pure  tones  in 


PREMIE'S  TEMPTATION.  115 

earnest  debate,  animated  description,  or,  dreamily 
thoughtful,  blending  with  the  song  of  the  leaves,  he 
was  entranced  into  a  midsummer-night's  dream  that 
left  no  place  in  his  thoughts  for  imaginings  of  other 
enjoyments.  It  was  a  dangerous  fascination,  as  he 
discovered  when  Miss  Darcy  rushed  up  to  the  city  in 
response  to  the  incautious  intimation  in  one  of  his 
letters  to  the  effect  that  "  our  friend,  Miss  Euphemia, 
is  overwrought,  I  fear.  She  is  hardly  so  plump  and 
rosy  as  when  you  left  us." 

The  indomitable  spinster  stayed  not  after  this  to 
parley  with  him  or  any  one  else,  but  carried  off  her 
prize  a  hundred  miles  back  into  the  country,  and 
left  him  to  review  at  his  leisure  the  charming  dia 
logues  that  had  been  the  staple  of  his  joys  for  the 
last  month. 

If  there  had  likewise  been  peril  to  Phemie  in  this 
intimacy,  she  was  not  aware  of  it  as  yet.  Olive  had 
invited  a  lively  young  friend  to  stay  with  her  until 
her  mother's  return  ;  Charlotte  was  improving  in 
health  and  strength ;  Albert  was  robust  from  the 
bountiful  supply  of  rural  delicacies  that  loaded  Dame 
Darcy's  board,  and  his  four  weeks'  life  in  the  open 
air,  and  cheerful  beyond  what  had  been  Phemie's 
most  sanguine  expectations.  Her  MS.  had  been 
completed  the  day  before  she  left  home,  and  placed 
in  Mr.  Hart's  hands,  and,  encircled  by  Miss  Darcy's 
loving  care,  as  by  a  wall  that  kept  off  baleful  airs 
from  the  outer  world,  the  girl  "  crossed  her  tired 
wrists,"  and  rested. 

lie-ted    and   dreamed — fancies  bright,    rare,    and 


116  PREMIERS  TEMPTATION. 

sweet,  that  made  fair  day  the  fairer,  and  filled  the 
fragrant  nights  with  music !  She  ripened  in  the 
August  sunshine  like  the  richest  peach  that  hung,  a 
globe  of  crimson  and  gold,  from  the  loaded  boughs 
of  the  farmer's  orchard.  If  excess  of  thought  and 

O 

pen-labor  had  diminished  in  any  degree  her  vitality, 
now  that  the  weight  was  removed,  her  whole  nature 
came  up  with  a  bound.  She  was  better  than  a 
forest  full  of  thrushes  for  music,  the  farmer  affirmed  ; 
bright  as  the  first  sunbeam  of  the  morning,  and 
fleet-footed  as  a  hare.  Before  she  had  been  a  week 
in  his  house  she  knew  every  nook  of  his  farm  as  well 
as  he  did ;  she  could  milk,  churn,  row,  and  fish,  and 
was  the  favorite  of  everything  on  the  place,  from  the 
farmer  and  his  help-meet  to  the  Juno-eyed  oxen, 
which  she  pampered  with  bunches  of  clover-hay 
while  they  were  ploughing,  and  the  month-old  duck 
lings  who  ran,  piping  their  shrill  "  queek "  at  her 
heels  whenever  she  crossed  the  lawn. 

On  this  afternoon  she  was  one  of  a  berry  ing-party, 
and  had  wandered  away  from  the  rest  to  the  brow 
of  Graytop  Hill,  the  highest  eminence  in  the  neigh 
borhood,  and  a  landmark  for  many  miles  around. 
Her  basket  of  berries  was  upon  the  ground  beside 
her ;  her  straw  hat  upon  her  knee ;  her  dress  of  buff 
chintz  harmonized  well  with  the  russet  and  gray 
mosses  and  the  deep-green  runners  of  the  creepers 
trailing  over  her  seat.  Her  color  was  glowing  ;  her 
eyes  were  softly  luminous,  and,  alone  and  unseen  as 
she  believed  herself  to  be,  there  was  about  her  figure 
the  indescribable,  but  marked  pride  and  grace  which 


PHEMIE'S  TEMPTATION.  117 

/ 
were  the  expression  of  conscious7  strength — force  of 

resolve  and  mind  that  was  always  ready,  never  ram 
pant,  unconquerable,  but  never  belligerent. 

As  she  repeated  aloud  the  concluding  stanzas  of  her 
"  psalm,"  the  tangled  branches  of  a  thicket  twenty  feet 
to  the  right  were  carefully  parted,  and  a  face  looked 
through— at  first  laughingly,  then,  as  she  relapsed 
into  a  silent,  happy  reverie,  earnestly  to  wistfulness. 

Had  the  west  winds  no  voice  for  him?  Did  no 
unseen  warder  of  the  woodside  temple  bar  the  in 
truder  from  profaning  her  retreat  with  hasty  footstep 
or  passionate  speech  ?  "Would  he  not  do  well  to  hold 
counsel  with  his  conscience  touching  the  wisdom  and 
mercy  of  breaking  up,  or  diverting  a  stream  so  calmly 
bright  as  were  her  maiden  musings,  by  the  outpour 
ings  of  a  love  that  had  scattered  to  the  winds  the 
ramparts  of  worldly  policy  and  prejudice,  behind 
which  he  had  believed  his  heart  secure  from  the  se 
ductions  of  charms  he  confessed,  from  the  date  of 
their  first  interview,  he  had  never  seen  surpassed  ? 
For  Robert  Hart  had  come  to  this  sequestered  farm 
house  with  the  design  of  making  this  avowal.  His 
primal  emotion,  upon  discovering  that  Miss  Darcy 
had  borne  off  his  gay  spirits  and  his  peace  of  mind, 
when  she  separated  him  from  Phemie,  had  been  one 
of  surpriseful  consternation.  He  was  angry  with 
himself  for  his  short-sightedness  and  imprudence  in 
having  risked  his  affections  carelessly,  while  he  de 
luded  cautious  Reason  with  talcs  of  disinterested 
pity  and  the  desire  to  encourage  modest  genius.  He 
was  more  angry  that  he  Jiad  lost  these  valuable  affec- 


118  PREMIERS  TEMPTATION. 

tions  irretrievably  to  a  girl  whose  rank  Avas  lower 
than  his  own,  and  whose  beauty,  talent,  and  intrinsic 
nobility  of  character  would  not  be  accepted  by  his 
world  as  an  offset  to  the  glaring  ineligibilities  of  the 
alliance.  His  face  burned  and  his  self-love  withered 
at  thought  of  the  comments  that  would  follow  the 
announcement  of  his  entanglement ;  of  the  sneers 
and  shrugs,  and  covert  gibes  and  indignant  sarcasms 
which  his  most  esteemed  friends  would  direct  at 
them  both.  He  easily  convinced  himself  that  the 
blush  and  wince  were  for  Phemie's  sake.  Had  he 
the  right — would  it  be  manly,  or  just,  or  kind,  to  ex 
pose  her  to  these  ? 

He  fought  Love  and  Longing  with  Common  Sense 
and  Policy,  thus,  every  day,  from  sunrise  to  dusk, 
and  the  return  of  each  evening  found  him  as  very  a 
slave  to  his  new  and  master  emotion  as  had  the  pre 
ceding,  ready  to  barter  the  esteem  of  his  peel's  ;  to 
brave  the  insults  of  a  city  full,  a  continent  full  of 
such,  for  one  look  into  Phemie's  starry  eyes ;  one 
love- word  from  her  lips ;  one  hour  of  communion 
with  her — "  the  world  forgetting,  by  the  world  for 
got  " — in  the  study  with  the  vine-draped  window. 
A  week  of  struggle  and  doubt,  and  his  choice  was 
made.  He  might  not  be  quite  comfortable  should 
he  win  this  woman.  He  would  be  utterly  wretched 
without  her.  There  might  be  thorns  upon  the  stem 
of  this  royal  rose,  but  he  must  have  it.  When  he 
should  wear  it  in  his  bosom,  perhaps  its  loveliness 
and  sweetness  would  beguile  him  into  forgetfulness 
of  prick  and  smart. 


PHEMIE'S  TEMPTATION.  119 

He  came,  accordingly,  and  arriving  at  the  home 
stead  soon  after  the  departure  of  the  berry-seekers, 
was  directed  to  follow  in  their  route.  The  flutter 
of  Phemie's  dress  caught  his  eye,  as  lie  halted  in 
bewilderment  at  the  foot  of  the  hill,  and  he  climbed 
it  by  a  shorter  and  steeper  path  than  that  which  she 
had  taken. 

"  Shall  I  be  accounted  a  shadow,  I  wonder  ?  "  he 
said,  emerging  from  his  covert,  and  approaching  her. 

He  had  his  answer  in  the  flash  of  ingenuous  trans 
port  that  brightened  her  eyes  to  dazzling ;  in  the 
impulsive  start  toward  him  and  the  warm  flood  that 
bathed  her  face. 

"Is  it  really  yourself?"  she  exclaimed,  when  he 
pressed  her  hands  between  his,  and  would  have 
thanked  her  for  her  welcome.  "  It  is  very  kind  in 
3rou  to  turn  aside  from  the  main  line  of  travel  to 
look  in  upon_us  in  our  seclusion.  Have  you  seen 
Miss  Darcy,  or  Albert?  How  did  you  know  we 
were  abroad  among  the  hills  ?  " 

"  I  have  seen  nobody  since  I  left  the  stage,  except 
the  good  folk  at  the  farm — and  yourself,"  he  added, 
leading  her  back  to  her  seat.  "  If  I  had  had  my  wish 
in  the  matter,  our  meeting  should  have  been  here 
and  thus,  in  preference  to  all  other  places  and  cir 
cumstances.  I  came  all  the  way  from  the  city  to  see 
you,  Phemie  ! " 

Her  color  flickered,  and  she  looked  alarmed. 

"  What  is  the  matter  ?  Didn't  the  manuscript 
please  you  ?  Is  it  a  failure  ? " 

"Nothing  you  do  can  be   anything   less   than  a 


120  PIIEMIE'S  TEMPTATION. 

success,"  rejoined  Robert,  vexed,  nevertheless,  that 
her  thoughts  had  taken  this  practical  and  profes 
sional  turn.  "  The  manuscript  is  all  right,  and  al 
ready  in  the  printer's  hands.  The  business  that 
brought  me  hither  is  of  a  different  character,  and 
very  much  more  important — to  me,  at  least." 

She  looked  directly  into  his  grave,  and,  it  must  be 
allowed,  slightly  embarrassed  visage.  "  If  it  is  any 
thing  in  which  I  can  render  you  the  least  service, 
you  cannot  doubt  my  willingness  to  help  you.  My 
sympathy  and  good  wishes  you  have  already." 

Her  naivete  and  the  total  absence  of  suspicion  of 
his  real  meaning  apparent  in  her  words  and  de 
meanor,  nettled  the  wooer  unreasonably.  Women 
were  generally  over-ready  to  scent  a  proposal — not 
prone  to  receive  the  preface  to  one  so  coolly.  He 
refreshed  his  resolution  to  declare  himself  in  full  by 
another  gaze  at  her  beauty  before  he  recommenced. 

He  took  care  to  speak  very  plainly,  now,  and  she 
understood  him.  There  was  not  a  drop  of  blood  in 
her  cheeks  or  lips  as  his  meaning  became  clear  to 
her,  and  the  amazed  incredulity  of  her  eyes  moved 
him  to  more  positive  protestations.  Then,  she 
covered  her  face  with  her  hands  and  bowed  them 
upon  her  knees,  the  swift  scarlet  dyeing  neck  and 
temples.  She  was  trembling  violently  when  he 
tried  to  lift  her  head,  and  pleaded  for  one  word  that 
should  allay  his  suspense.  But  her  only  reply  being 
a  silent  shudder,  a  new  fear  entered  his  soul. 

"  Phemie !  "  he  said,  in  a  different  tone — the  ac 
cent  of  a  wronged  and  disappointed  man.  "  Ca'a  it 


PIIEMIE'S  TEMPTATION.  121 

be  that  I  am  mistaken  in  my  hope  that  the  know 
ledge  of  my  love  is  not  disagreeable  to  you  ?  Do 
you  despise  and  reject  it?  " 

She  showed  him  a  countenance,  strangely  livid 
now,  whereas  it  had  been, only  pallid  when  he  last 
beheld  it.  "  Reject  your  love ! "  she  said,  mourn 
fully.  "  If  I  were  to  tell  you  that  the  hearing  of  it 
was  like  the  surprise  one  knows  in  finding,  unex 
pectedly,  a  well  of  cool,  sweet  waters  in  a  desert,  I 
should  convey  very  feebly  to  your  mind  the  truth 
of  what  your  story  has  been  to  me.  But  if  it  is  rap 
ture  to  see  the  living  waters,  it  is  madness  for  the 
thirsting  wretch  to  look  upon  them  and  feel  that  he 
can  never  taste  them.  Oh  !  why  did  you  tell  me 
this  ?  Why  was  I  suffered  to  meet,  and  to  know 
you  ?  My  Father  !  this  is  very  hard  !  very  bitter  ! 
And  I  was  almost  happy — quite  peaceful !  " 

She  sobbed  aloud — wild  weeping  that  confounded, 
while  it  moved  the  observer  to  tenderest  pity.  By 
degrees,  as  the  paroxysm  died  into  long  sighs  that 
threatened  to  bring  out  the  life  with  them  from  the 
tortured  heart,  he  expressed  his  inability  to  fathom 
the  reasons  of  her  distress ;  declared  that  her  lan 
guage  was  as  enigmatical  as  it  was  painful  to  him. 

"  You  admit  that  the  tale  of  my  love  is  not  un 
welcome,  yet  in  the  same  breath  you  say  you  can 
not  accept  it — wish  you  had  never  known  me !  "  he 
said,  deeply  aggrieved.  "  I  am  at  a  loss  to  compre 
hend  these  contradictions.  Either  you  lave  me,  or 
3rou  do  not.  I  beg  you  to  deal  candidly  and  ex 
plicitly  with  me." 
6 


122  PREMIE'S  'TEMPTATION. 

Pliemie  dried  her  eyes,  and  the  resolute  curves 
bent  her  lips  into  their-  wonted  firmness.  "  I  be 
lieve  you  when  you  say  that  you  love  me.  But  I 
never  suspected  it  until  this  hour.  How  should  I? 
I  bowed  to  you  in  heart  and  spirit  as  to  a  noble, 
good  man  who  had  befriended  me  in  more  ways 
than  I  could  number ;  who  had  brought  light  and 
freshness  into  my  lowly  life,  but  who  thought  of  me 
only  as  benefactors  do  of  those  they  have  helped  and 
comforted.  I  was  glad  I  had  met  you ;  proud  and 
grateful  because  you  seemed  to  like  me  and  ap 
proved  of  what  I  thought,  and  said,  and  wrote. 
But,  long  ago,  I  put  thoughts  of  marriage  away  from 
me.  I  was  one  of  the  world's  workers.  The  idle 
and  the  fortunate  alone  had  the  right  to  dream  of 
love  and  home,  and  a  sheltered  life  passed  in  pleas 
ant  service,  voluntarily  assumed  for  love's  sake.  I 
have  tried  to  be  contented — tried  steadily  and  dili 
gently  as  I  have  striven  to  do  other  work  well. 
Latterly,  I  have  flattered  myself  that  I  was  satisfied, 
and  that  the  wider  field  you  and  Miss  Darcy  had 
opened  for  the  exercise  of  my  few  talents  would 
leave  me  no  room  for  repining.  I  said  to  myself 
that  the  useful  were  always  the  happy,  and  that  my 
sphere  of  usefulness  was  large  enough  to  fill  the 
measure  of  my  energies  and  desires.  It  \vas  not  an 
exalted  ambition,  but  it  was  the  brightest  I  had  a 
right  to  indulge.  The  hope  and  the  enjoyment  of  it 
seem  far  enough  from  rne,  now,  but  my  duty  re 
mains  unaltered.  The  support  of  my  mother,  and 
one  of  my  sisters ;  the  education,  and,  for  several 


PHEMIE'S  TEMPTATION.  123 

years  to  come,  the  maintenance  of  my  brother  are 
cares  GOD  has  laid  upon  me,  and  I  may  not  put 
them  aside." 

"Has  it  occurred  to  you  that,  as  my  wife,  you 
would  still  be  able  to  help  them  ?  "  interrupted  her 
companion,  in  tender  reproach. 

"With  your  money?  Their  honest  pride  would 
not  let  them  receive  alms  from  you.  My  sense  of 
what  was  due  to  you  would  hinder  me  from  tender 
ing  such  relief." 

"  They  allow  you  to  maintain  them  out  of  your 
wages." 

"  Because  they  are  of  the  same  blood,  and  we  labor 
together  as  one  family,  each  contributing  her  share 
to  the  common  store.  I  owe  them  much.  You  owe 
them  nothing.  I  could  never  meet  your  eye  without 
a  blush  of  shame,  were  I  to  burden  you  with  my  rel 
atives  as  pensioners." 

"  It  is  unfair !  It  is  monstrous  !  "  Mr.  Hart  ground 
his  heel  into  the  mossy  earth  and  clenched  his  teeth. 
"You  are  to  be  sacrificed — youth,  health,  happiness 
— to  their  exactions  and  your  perverted  views  of  duty ! 
I  plead  for  you,  while  I  entreat  you  for  my  sake,  to 
reconsider  your  mistaken  decision.  Reflect  well, 
Phemie,  before  you  recommit  yourself  to  this  bond 
age.  Other  mothers  and  sisters  live  who  have  no 
daughter  and  sister,  gifted,  like  yourself,  with  talent 
and  energy  to  earn  for  them  a  comfortable  support. 
If  they  were  consulted,  they  would  release  you  from 
this  unnatural  obligation.  From  the  hour  in  which 
you  promise  to  marry  me,  I  charge  myself  with  Al- 


124:  PREMIER  TEMPTATION. 

bert's  education,  and  in  his  vacations  your— our 
home,  dearest — shall  be  his.  I  love  the  boy  for  his 
own  estimable  qualities,  and  because  it  was  through 
him  I  first  knew  you.  Your  mother  can  find  a  home 
with  Mrs.  Mandell,  or,  should  you  and  she  desire  it, 
she  shall  live  with  us.  Charlotte  is  already  inde 
pendent  of  aid  from  others.  There  is  left  only  Olive 
— younger  and  as  strong  as  yourself — fully  as  able 
to  take  care  of  one  person  as  you  are  to  maintain 
four.  Look  at  the  case  fairly,  my  darling !  Judge 
it  as  if  it  were  another's — and  "  passing  from  the  ar 
gumentative  strain  he  had  compelled  himself  to 
adopt,  into  persuasive  gentleness  —  fond  coaxing,  a 
thousand-fold  harder  to  withstand ;  "  come  to  me, 
my  love,  my  beauty,  my  bird !  Fold  the  tired  wings, 
stretched  so  bravely  and  so  long,  upon  my  breast ! 
Let  me  love  and  care  for  you,  Phemie !  I  want  you ! 
you  cannot  guess  how  sorely  ! " 

He  drew  the  beautiful  head  to  his  bosom,  and  it 
lay  there  for  one  moment.  "  I  could  not  help  it !  " 
she  sobbed,  the  tears  pressing  from  the  hold  of  the 
closed  lids  when  he  stooped  to  kiss  her.  "  I  shall 
never  forget  that  you  have  ofiered  me  this  rest — 
Albert  and  my  mother  a  home.  It  is  worth  the 
battle  and  the  anguish,  to  know  this  one  instant  of 
belief  in  your  love,  and  to  feel  what  a  high-souled, 
generous  man  you  are.  Yet  it  makes  the  parting 
harder." 

"  You  talk  of  parting  still ! "  interposed  Robert, 
trying  to  lay  the  head  back  upon  the  pillow  it  had 
left.  "You  can  think  of  our  separation  when  you 


PHEHIE'S  TEMPTATION.  125 

are  mine,  all  mine !  Do  you  then  dream,  for  a 
second,  that,  having  drawn  from  you  the  dear  con 
fession  of  your  love,  I  can  give  you  up  ?  You  shall 
never  leave  me,  Phemie  ! " 

"  I  must !  If  I  belonged  to  myself,  you  should  not 
ask  twice  for  so  poor  a  gift  as  my  hand.  I  under 
stand  better  than  you  do  what  I  am  giving  up.  But 
I  also  remember— and  this  helps  me  to  stand  firmly 
— that  you  would  resign  much  were  you  to  marry  me. 
When  the  popular  story  was  that  you  meant  to  make 
Clara  Mallory  your  wife,  not  a  disapproving  voice 
was  heard.  All  classes  united  in  declaring  the  union 
suitable,  and  in  prophesying  happiness  for  both  of 
you.  If  it  were  noised' abroad  that  you  had  engaged 
yourself  to  the  daughter  of  a  bankrupt — a  girl  who 
had  sewed,  and  copied  law  papers,  and  sold  papers  of 
pins  and  needles  for  a  living,  and  whose  meagre 
trousseau  was  bought  with  the  proceeds  of  her  labor 
as  Mr.  Arnold's  bookkeeper,  the  outcry  would  be  in 
stant  and  loud  against  your  throwing  yourself  away. 
You  are  so  noble  as  to  forget  this.  It  is  all  the  more 
needful,  therefore,  that  I  should  not  lose  sight  of  it." 

There  was  enough  truth  in  this  speech  to  renew 
the  tingling  sensation  the  suitor's  self-love  had  ex 
perienced  when  he  would  have  weighed  impartially 
the  worldly  disadvantages  of  the  meditated  union, 
and  the  annoyance  produced  by  this,  added  to  that 
one  always  feels  when  another  repeats  as  his,  a  senti 
ment  he  more  than  suspects  is  contemptible,  goaded 
him  to  retort  more  harshly  than  affectionately. 

"  This  is  rank  folly,  Phemie  !     I  am  accountable 


126  PHEMIE'S  TEMPTATION. 

to  no  one  for  my  actions.  I  am  my  own  master — 
free  to  choose  a  wife  for  myself,  and  independent  of 
what  others  may  say.  Had  you  the  same  degree  of 
moral  courage,  you  would  spare  us  both  much  use 
less  misery." 

"  Do  not  be  angry  with  me !  " 

The  brown  eyes  pleaded  BO  meekly  against  his 
wrath  he  could  not  but  kiss  them  shut. 

"  Could  I  let  you  go,  if  I  were  not  sure  I  was 
obeying  the  voice  of  Duty?  You  would  not  respect 
me — and  love  -without  respect  is  very  short-lived — 
if  I  were  to  condemn  my  mother  to  a  life  of  depend 
ence  upon  aliens  in  blood,  if  not  in  feeling,  my  sister 
to  servitude  as  a  chambermaid  or  seamstress — she  is 
qualified  for  no  higher  position, — and  cast  my  help 
less  brother  upon  your  bounty,  when  I  can  keep  them 
all  together  under  one  roof,  above  want  and  above 
charity.  It  is  not  pride  that  holds  me  fast  to  this 
purpose.  It  is  common  honesty  and  natural  affec 
tion." 

"  And  is  this  to  go  on  for  ever,  Phemie  ?  Are  you 
to  live  and  die  a  bond-slave  ?  " 

"  GOD  knows !  "  She  folded  her  hands,  and  her 
head  drooped  in  patient  submission.  "  He  knows, 
too,  what  is  best  for  me.  In  Him  is  my  only  hope 
that  my  cross  will  not  be  too  heavy  for  me  to  bear." 

"  I  cannot  resign  my  fondest  hope  in  life  so  easily  1 " 
Robert  said,  petulantly.  He  might  have  said  that 
he  liked  his  own  way  too  well  to  resign  the  hope  of 
having  it  whenever  the  accomplishment  of  his  plans 
seemed  feasible.  "  You  think  to  fill  your  heart  with 


PHEMIE'S  TEMPTATION.  127 

other  affections — your  life  with  other  aims.  The 
disappointment  is  to  me  a  foretaste  of  Death — it 
leaves  me  so  little  to  live  for." 

"  You  do  not  intend  a  sarcasm."  Phemie's  sad 
smile  had  in  it  a  wondrously  plaintive  meaning. 
1 "  But  your  words  sound  like  one.  You  will  look 
back  to  this  hour,  some  day,  and  understand  me." 

"You  talk  in  puzzles,  to-day!  I  never  had  any 
trouble  in  comprehending  you  before.  It  may  be 
that  I  am  not  in  the  frame  of  mind  to  discern  readily 
the  drift  of  riddles."  He  could  hardly  admit  the 
possibility  of  his  rejection,  so  stunning  and  unforeseen 
was  this  sequel  to  his  confident  wooing.  He  was 
honest  in  showing  the  misguided  girl  that  she  was 
casting  away  her  fairest  chance  of  happiness.  He 
resumed,  after  a  slight  pause,  more  quietly,  but  still 
in  the  tone  of  one  who  felt  his  injuries  to  be 
great : — 

"But  one  thing  is  apparent.  The  suit  I  have 
argued — perhaps  too  warmly — is  negatived  by  you. 
Should  you  ever  see  cause  to  regret  your  hasty  de 
cision,  I  stand  ready  to  renew  it.  Time  cannot, 
change  me.  Having  once  known  and  loved  you,  I 
must  always  love  you.  My  life  was  lonely  before. 
It  will  be  desolate  now.  Remember  this  when  your 
chosen  career  ceases  to  satisfy  you.  I  can  bide  my 
time." 

"  I  know  what  I  have  chosen.  It  is  not  a  ques 
tion  of  satisfaction,  but  of  endurance,"  replied  Phe- 
mie,  gently  and  sadly.  "  That  I  shall  not  lose  my 
reward,  I  must  hope,  for  I  believe  the  promise  of  the 


128  PUEMIE'S  TEMPTATION. 

Father  to  those  who  endure  hardness  as  good  soldiers. 
But  the  hardness  is  hardness  still,  and  existence  a 
warfare,  and  the  prize  is  not  given  until  the  race  is 
won." 

Mr.  Hart  looked  down  at  her,  his  anger  subdued 
by  her  humility  and  Christian  patience.  "  You  are 
a  brave,  a  grand,  a  good  woman,  Phemie  ! "  he  ex 
claimed,  impetuously.  "  And  I  have  met  your  hero 
ism  with  unmanly  petulance.  Forgive  me,  darling ! 
I  submit  to  your  decision,  not  because  I  acknowledge 
its  justice  to  yourself  or  to  me,  but  because  I  would 
not  make  your  sacrifice  more  difficult.  I  thank  you 
for  telling  me,  in  your  own  frank  way,  that  it  is  a 
sacrifice.  In  this,  as  in  many  respects,  your  behav 
ior  has  been  unlike  that  of  most  women.  One  kiss, 
love !  and  I  will  trouble  you  no  longer.  If  Miss 
Darcy  hears  that  I  have  been  here,  tell  her  what  you 
please — what  will  pain  you  least," 

"  I  shall  tell  no  one  what  has  passed  between  us. 
I  could  not ! " 

Nothing  more  was  spoken  ;  but  Mr.  Hart  felt  that 
her  eyes  followed  his  course  down  the  hill  when  their 
reluctant  hands  had  parted,  the  last  glance  been  ex 
changed,  appreciated  better  than  he  had  confessed  to 
her,  the  truth  that,  heavy  and  sore  as  was  his  heart, 
it  was  light  in  comparison  with  the  aching  one  he 
left  behind  him. 

And  thus  the  shadows  closed  again,  and  in  the 
darkened  chambers  of  her  soul  the  woman  bowed 
herself  together  in  mourning  over  her  buried  youth, 
and  the  beautiful  hope  her  own  hand  had  slain. 


PHEMIKS  TEMPTATION.  129 

Oh  !  when  one  reflects  upon  the  million  altars  of 
sacrifice  raised  by  hands,  feeble  in  all  but  love  for 
those  given  by  Heaven  to  their  care,  and  faith  in  the 
Helper  of  the  sorrowing  and  heavy-laden, — altars, 
upon  which  the  victims  are  the  living  hearts  of  the 
builders,  and  the  burning  incense,  loves,  hopes,  and 
joys,  innocent  in  themselves,  and  that  are  often  the 
best  treasures  of  the  devotees,  one  marvels  that  the 
earth  puts  forth  any  green  or  lovely  thing — that  the 
bending  skies  ever  smile. 
6* 


CHAPTER  YII. 

k!RST  a  shadow — then  a  sorrow." 

lS"o  one  guessed  how  often  Phemie  said 
the  words  over  to  herself  during  the  fall 
and  winter  that  succeeded  the  brief  bright 
ness  of  her  week  in  the  country.  Char 
lotte  had  been  one  of  the  berrying-party,  and,  be 
coming  over-tired  or  overheated,  she  was  seized 
during  the  night  with  a  chill,  that  was  the  prelude 
to  a  hemorrhage  more  copious  and  protracted  than 
any  that  had  preceded  it.  So  soon  as  she  was  able 
to  bear  the  journey,  they  took  her  back  to  the  city. 
She  never  left  the  house  again  alive.  Throughout 
the  autumn  and  the  early  winter,  her  longest  journey 
was  from  her  chamber  to  Phemie's  on  the  same  floor. 
Before  Christmas  she  was  bedridden,  and  required 
the  constant  attendance  of  Mrs.  Rowland  or  Olive. 
One  of  these,  or  Miss  Darcy,  who  devoted  two  nights 
each  week  to  the  pious  charity,  likewise  -watched 
from  bedtime  until  daybreak,  at  the  sufferer's  bed 
side.  Charlotte,  usually  yielding  to  a  fault,  was 


TEMPTATION.  131 

resolute  in  forbidding  Pheinie  to  undertake  the 
whole  vigil.  The  others  could  snatch  "an  hour's 
sleep  during  the  day.  Phemie's  time  was  not  her 
own.  It  pleased  Charlotte  to  have  her  best-beloved 
sister  near  her  in  the  evening,  although  the  busy, 
driven  pen  allowed  them  no  opportunity  for  conver 
sation.  The  golden  hours  of  the  twenty-few  were 
those  when  the  broad  brow  with  the  banded  hair 
oversweeping  it ;  the  great,  thoughtful  eyes  and 
firmly-closed  lips  bent  in  the  invalid's  admiring  sight 
over  the  paper  she  was  preparing  for  Miss  Darcy's 
magazine. 

Phemie  was  a  regular  contributor  to  this  now. 
The  public  were  beginning  to  watch  for  her  articles, 
and  the  principal  editor  to  congratulate  himself  in 
place  of  regretting  that  he  had  obliged  Miss  Darcy 
by  paying  a  new  and  unknown  author.  According 
to  his  theory  and  practice  she  should  have  been  con 
tented,  for  a  year  or  so,  with  seeing  herself  in  print 
in  his  columns,  and,  in  the  event  of  her  future  cele 
brity,  hold  herself  forever  indebted  to  him  for  having 
furnished  the  stepping-stone  to  success.  Phemie 
wrote  nowhere  except  in  Charlotte's  chamber,  and  all 
she  wrote  she  read  aloud  to  this  one  partial  critic. 

"  It  is  the  next  best  thing  to  being  an  author 
myself,"  said  the  latter,  one  snowy  December  night, 
as  Phemie  folded  and  enveloped  her  sketch  prepara 
tory  to  delivering  it  at  the  magazine  office  in  the 
morning. 

She  would  save  the  postage  by  setting  out  early 
enough  to  call  at  Miss  Darcy's  on  her  way  down 


132  PHEMIKS  TEMPTATION. 

town,  and  this  was  a  consideration  when,  prices 
were  still' on  the  rise  and  salaries  in  statu  quo. 

"  I  wish  I  could  tell  you  how  proud  I  am  of  you, 
my  precious  sister  !  "  was  the  addendum  to  the  sick 
girl's  comment  upon  the  story  to  which  she  had 
been  listening. 

"  I  wish  you  had  more  cause  to  be  proud  of  me, 
Lottie,  dear  ! "  responded  Phemie,  setting  her  desk 
aside  and  turning  down  the  gas. 

They  could  talk  as  well  in  a  dimly-lighted  room, 
and  Charlotte  liked  to  watch  the  play  of  the  street 
light  from  below  upon  the  wall.  The  speaker 
chafed  her  right  wrist — what  wearied  penman  does 
not  recall  the  peculiar  and  sickening  aching  that  led 
to  the  gesture  ? — and  stretched  out  the  fingers, 
cramped  with  their  clench  upon  the  barrel  of  a  pen 
holder  for  thirteen  hours,  with  the  intervals  of  two 
half  hours  for  meals. 

"  You  have  not  coughed  so  much  to-night,"  she 
continued,  perching  herself  upon  the  bed,  and  lift 
ing  her  sister  to  a  sitting  posture  by  supporting  her 
against  her  shoulder. 

"  Haven't  1 2  I  am  glad  !  I  dread,  coughing,  be 
cause  it  must  disturb  you." 

"  Only  as  it  gives  you  pain,  my  poor,  unselfish 
child !  If  I  could  do  half,  or  all  of  it  for  you,  I 
should  not  mind  it  at  all.  I  should  approve  highly 
of  that  kind  of  division  of  labor." 

"  You  are  very  tired  !  "  said  Charlotte,  anxiously, 
detecting  the  false  note  in  the  accent  the  other  would 
have  made  playful. 


PHEMIE'S  TEMPTATION.  133 

"  Pshaw  !  a  little  fagged,  and  slightly  hoarse — 
nothing  more !  "  was  the  rejoinder.  "  And  this  is 
my  style  of  resting  myself.  I  could  not  ask  a 
better." 

"  That  is  because  you  do  not  know  what  rest  is  !  " 
pursued  Charlotte,  with  increasing  uneasiness.  "  I 
have  many  sorrowful  thoughts  about  you  as  I  lie 
here.  You  seem  to  me,  all  the  while,  like  one  under 
the  goad — or  wound  up  to  too  great  speed — as  if  you 
dared  not  stop  a  moment,  for  fear  you  might  sink 
down  helpless." 

"  Like  Mr.  Pickwick's  cab-horse,"  interrupted 
Phemie,  laughing.  "  '  He  always  falls  down,  when 
he's  took  out  of  his  cab,'  said  the  driver,  '  but  when 
he's  in  it,  we  bears  him  up  werry  tight,  and  takes 
him  in  werry  short,  so's  he  can't  werry  well  fall 
down,  and  we've  got  a  pair  of  precious  large  wheels 
on ;  so  ven  he  does  move,  they  run  after  him,  and  he 
must  go  on — he  can't  help  it.'  Have  no  fears  for 
me,  Lottie !  I  like  work ;  I  enjoy  nothing  else  so 
much.  I  was  thinking,  as  I  put  up  that  packet  just 
now,  how  thankful  I  am  that  I  have  enough  to  do." 

"  That  is  not  a  natural  feeling  for  a  young  girl. 
It  is  the  consolation  of  one  who  dares  not  look  back, 
and  who  has  nothing  to  expect." 

"  It  is  the  true  philosophy — to  live  by  the  day," 
returned  Phemie.  "  And  I  have  much  to  live  for. 
My  hourly  prayer  is  that  I  may  remember  Iww 
much." 

The  fitful  play  of  the  street  lamp  on  the  wall 
seamed  to  catch  Charlotte's  eye,  and  she  watched  it 


PREMIE'S  TEMPTATION. 

for  a  few  moments.  The  sleet  tapped  at  the  rattling 
window,  and  the  streets  were  silent  with  the  hush 
of  approaching  midnight.  Besides  themselves,  there 
was  no  other  waking  creature  in  the  house. 

"  I  wish  I  dared  ask  you  a  question,"  said  the  sick 
sister,  hesitating  between  the  words.  "  I  have 
thought  over  many  things  since  I  have  lain  here,  and 
more  of  you  than  all  things  else.  Is  it  only  my  ill 
ness  and  the  added  care  and  responsibility  this  has 
entailed  upon  you,  with  the  almost  certain  knowledge 
of  what  the  end  must  be,  that  has  oppressed  you  all 
this  winter — ever  since  the  night  I  was  taken  sick 

o 

in  the  country  ?  Others  perceive  no  change  in  you. 
Mother,  Olive,  and  Emily  were  saying  to-day,  how 
well  you  bear  your  increased  labors ;  how  cheerful 
and  strong  you  are.  But  I  feel  that  you  are  not  the 
same.  You  are  grateful  now  where  you  used  to  be 
glad ;  steady,  where  you  were  formerly  buoyant. 
"What  is  the  matter,  Phemie  ?  " 

"  Am  I  changed  1  It  must  be  because  I  have  so 
much  to  do  and  to  think  of,  and  I  am  growing  old, 
little  one.  I  shall  be  twenty-four  next  month.  Don't 
fret  yourself  about  me,  I  repeat.  I  am  getting  along 
well — famously  !  I  mean  to  write  a  book  next  year 
that  shall  take  the  critics  by  storm  and  make  all  our 
fortunes." 

"  I  shall  not  be  here  to  read  it,"  said  the  elder, 
simply ;  and  Phemie's  overwrought  composure  failed 
her. 

Her  tears  dropped  on  the  head  resting  upon  her 
shoulder.  "  I  have  tried  to  deceive  you,  Charlotte. 


PHEMIE^S  TEMPTATION.  135 

I  have  had  a  great  sorrow.  I  promised  not  to  tell 
even  you  about  it.  But  it  has  taken  the  spring  out  of 
my  life.  Stay  with  me,  dearest  sister !  Help  me 
to  live ! " 

"  I  knew  it !  "  The  thin  hand  pulled  down  the 
wet  cheek  to  the  wan  one.  "  But  you  will  be  happy 
yet,  dear.  And  my  going  will  help  on  this  end.  I 
see  it  all !  " 

Before  Phemie  could  utter  the  expostulation  upon 
her  tongue,  Olive  entered.  She  had  been  taking  tea 
with  Emily,  and  her  hood  was  pushed  back  from  a 
very  ruddy  face.  Absorbed  as  the  sisters  were  in 
other  and  sadder  concerns,  both  remarked  something 
singular  in  her  look  and  manner,  as  she  kissed  them, 
with  many  apologies  for  staying  out  so  late.  It  was 
her  night  to  take  care  of  Charlotte,  and  her  mother 
had  retired  two  hours  before. 

"  I  didn't  mean  to  keep  you  up,  Phemie,"  she  said, 
fidgeting  from  the  bureau  to  the  closet,  turning  up 
the  gas,  and  then  putting  it  out  altogether  in  her 
haste  to  lower  it.  "But  Emily  had  some  sewing  for 
me  to  do,  and  Seth  was  out  until  ten  o'clock  at  the 
store,  or  somewhere,  and  Emily  was  obliged  to  stay 
in  the  nursery  with  little  Joe,  who  was  not  quite 
well  "— 

"  Little  Seth,  you  mean — don't  you  ?  "  corrected 
Charlotte. 

"  I  said  so — didn't  I?"  Olive  hurried  on  at  a  great 
rate,  unhooking  her  dress,  and  taking  down  a  wrapper 
from  the  closet.  "  So  when  Joe — Seth,  I  would  say 
— came  in — " 


136  PHEMIE1  S  TEMPTATION. 

"  Really,  Oily,  I  think  you  had  better  wait  to  re 
cover  your  breath — or  your  wits,"  interposed  Phemie, 
smiling  at  her  frantic  blunders,  despite  her  own 
weary-hearted  ness. 

"  It's  no  use  ! "  Good-natured,  honest  Olive  threw 
herself  upon  her  sister's  bed,  and  laughed  and  cried 
together.  "  I've  got  Joe  into  my  head,  and  he  slips 
off  my  tongue  with  every  other  word.  For  he  spent 
the  evening  at  Emily's,  and  we  had  the  parlor  all  to 
ourselves,  and  he  walked  home  with  me  besides,  and 
he  asked  me  to  marry  him,  and  he  has  liked  me  this 
great  while,  and  I  like  him,  and  I  have  promised  to 
marry  him  if  mother  can  spare  me,  and  if  you — 
Charlotte  and  Phemie — don't  object.  Seth  and  Em 
know  all  about  it,  and  they  say  I  could  not  get  a 
better  husband." 

"  You  could  not,  indeed  !  "  answered  Phemie,  em 
phatically.  "  They  may  well  say  that.  You  have 
chosen  wisely,  and  so  has  he.  You  will  make  him  a 
good  wife,  and  he  you  an  excellent  husband.  Nobody 
can  dream  of  objecting  to  the  match,  or  of  throwing 
a  straw  in  your  way.  J  congratulate  you  with  all  my 
heart." 

"  And  I ! "  said  Charlotte,  rather  faintly.  "  But 
you  have  taken  us — or  me,  at  least,  by  surprise." 

"  You  thought  he  was  in  love  with  Phemie,"  said 
the  candid  fiancee.  "  And  you  were  right.  He  did 
love  her — for  years  and  years — even  after  she  had 
told  him  it  was  useless  to  hope  for  any  other  answer 
than  '  No.'  I  liked  him  all  the  while.  I  used  to  be 
angry  with  her  for  her  indifference  to  him,  and  the 


PHEMLKS  TEMPTATION.  137 

fun  she  made  of  him — but  I  forgive  you  now, 
Phemie.  He  fancied  me  first  on  account  of  my 
resemblance  to  yon,  which  I  fancy  nobody  else 
will  ever  discover,"  laughing  in  the  fulness  of  her 
happiness.  "  He  wasn't  brilliant  or  handsome 
enough  for  you,  Phemie,  I  suppose  you  thought,  but 
he  couldn't  please  me  better  if  he  had  been  made  to 
order." 

"  I  never  objected  to  his  want  of  brilliancy  or  lack 
of  good  looks,  as  he  will  tell  you,"  returned  her 
sister.  "  I  only  assured  him  that  I  should  never 
marry.  If  I  had  loved  him  never  so  truly,  my 
answer  must  have  been  the  same." 

"  Then,  perhaps — not  now  ! "  whispered  Charlotte, 
pressing  Phemie's  fingers  to  her  lips.  "  Child !  child ! 
what  a  martyr  we  have  made  of  you ! "  she  said, 
aloud,  in  a  passion  of  regret  and  veneration. 

"  Ridiculous ! "  Phemie  could  bear  no  more.  "  It 
is  we  who  are  martyrizing  you — talking  you  to 
death  !  I  will  give  you  your  soothing  draught  now, 
and  then  you  must  sleep,  without  letting  our  be 
trothed  maiden  speak  ten  words  more,  even  in  the 
praise  of  her  worthy  Joe.  He  is  worthy  of  all  your 
love  and  respect,  Oily,  as  you  may  possibly  find  out 
for  yourself  in  time,  if  you  are  moderately  discern 
ing." 

As  she  arranged  Charlotte's  pillows  for  the  night, 
the  emaciated  arms  suddenly  clasped  her  neck,  and, 
looking  steadfastly  into  her  eyes,  the  sick  girl  said. 
in  earnest,  thrilling  tones :  "  '  I  know  thy  works,  and 
charity,  and  faith,  and  thy  patience,  and  the  last  to 


138  PHEMIE'8  TEMPTATION. 

be  more  than  the  first!"1  GOD  bless  you,  darling,  for 
the  best,  strongest,  most  faithful  woman  that  ever 
lived  ! " 

"  She  was  sleeping  sweetly  after  a  restless  night," 
said  Olive,  when  Phemie  relieved  her  watch  at  dawn, 
and  she  did  not  awake  while  the  latter  remained  at 
home.  She  was  due  at  the  store  at  eight  o'clock,  and 
the  walk  through  the  streets  slippery  with  ice  and 
slush  would  consume  an  hour.  She  peeped  into 
Charlotte's  room  on  her  way  out,  but  seeing  her  face 
tinted  with  a  delicate  flush,  too  clear  and  lovely  for 
that  of  health,  and  giving  her  an  aspect  of  youthful 
beauty  she  did  not  wear  when  awake — still  lying 
with  closed  eyes  upon  the  pillow,  she  kissed  her 
mother,  who  was  watching  her,  a  silent  "Good- by," 
and  went  out  to  her  day's  work. 

She  Avas  almost  hopeful  this  morning.-  She  had 
heard  from  Albert  the  previous  day.  His  home 
sickness  had  yielded  to  the  kindly-judicious  treat 
ment  of  the  attendants  at  the  Institute  in  which  he 
was  now  a  pupil,  while  his  progress  in  his  studies  and 
irreproachable  "behavior  were  commented  upon  favor 
ably  by  his  teachers.  Olive  was  to  be  married,  and 
Joe  Bonney  was  consoled  ;  she  was  more  pleased 
than  usual  with  her  latest  literary  effort,  and  Char 
lotte  was  better.  Ravs  of  light — all  of  these — which 

«/  £j 

would  have  made  broad  day  in  a  heart  unshadowed 
by  a  brooding  sorrow  that  ever ,  held  its  place,  let 
other  troubles  thicken,  or  disperse.  It  was  not  a 
busy  day  at  the  store,  and  between  the  entries  and 
calculations  that  made  up  the  routine  of  her  labors, 


PIIEMIE'S  TEMPTATION.  139 

she  found  leisure  to  think  out  the  outline  of  a  new 
article  for  Miss  Darcy.  ; 

"  If  Lottie  is  comfortable,  to-night,  I  will  begin  it 
forthwith,"  she  was  resolving,  when  a  dirty  errand- 
boy,  evidently  snatched  up  for  the  purpose  from  one 
of  the  back  streets  near  her  home,  laid  on  her  desk  a 
note  from  her  sister  Emily. 

"  Charlotte  is  dying.     Come  home  !  " 

How  she  got  into  Mr.  Arnold's  presence  she  did 
not  know,  nor  how  she  made  known  her  business. 
But  she  did  feel,  in  every  impatient  pulse,  the  meas 
ured  accents  that  repeated  her  announcement  and 
remarked  upon  it. 

"  Your  sister  is  dying,  and  you  want  to  go  home, 
immediately,  I — ah — understood  you  to  say,  Miss 
Rowland  ?  So — so  !  "  scraping  his  dewlap  of  a  chin 
with  his  cleanly  pared  nails.  "  Um — m  !  If  the 
summons  be  correct,  I  suppose  there  is  reason  in  your 
request.  By  whom  was  it  sent  ?  " 

"  My  sister  wrote  to  me,  sir.  It  is  certainly  true," 
moving  a  step  toward  the  door. 

"  Your  sister !  Then  she  can  hardly  be  dying !  Is 
she  not  a — ah — trifle  hypochondriacal  ?  " 

Poor  Phemie  was  ready  to  believe  that  he  took  a 
ghoulish  pleasure  in  reiterating  the  dread  phrase 
that  had  driven  her  beside  herself.  "  Another  sister !  " 
she  explained,  laconically. 

"  Oh !  Ah !  I  see !  There  is  no  alternative, 
then,  Miss  Rowland.  I  shall  have  to  let  you  go,  in 
convenient  and  unbusinesslike  as  such  a  proceeding 
is.  I  hope,  however  " — the  fat  slave  of  routine  had  it 


140  PIIEMI&8  TEMPTATION. 

in  his  slow  brain  to  say,  "  that  the  like  will  not  occur 
again" — but  some  linge rings  of  propriety  exchanged 
that  formula  for,  "  that  you  will  discover  this  to  be — 
ah — a  false  alarm." 

She  was  oft'  like  the  wind,  when  he  recalled  her. 

"Miss  Rowland!" 

Could  nothing  hasten  the  fall  of  his  oily  periods  ? 

"  Miss  Rowland !  When  may  we  look  for  you  at 
your  post  again  ?  This  is  a  busy  season,  you  recol 
lect.  The  claims  of  grief  should  —  ah — in  every 
well-ordered  mind,  yield,  succumb,  give  way  to  the 
more  weighty  considerations  of  the  public  good.  You 
have  excellent  judgment,  Miss  Rowland,  and  must 
see  this." 

"  I  shall  be  back  at  my  desk  to-morrow,  unless  my 
sister  is  still  living  in  the  morning ! "  Phemie  en 
gaged,  her  great  eyes  set  upon  his  with  an  expres 
sion  he  understood  no  more  than  he  would  have  done 
a  dissertation  upon  the  subtler  humanities  that  dis 
tinguish  the  man  from  the  boor. 

"  Yery  prompt !  a  laudable  zeal,  Miss  Rowland ! 
Your  response  is  entirely  regular  and  professional. 
Afflictions  are,  of  course — ah — unpleasant  items  in 
the  bill  of  life,  but  they  are  expenses  that  must  be 
met — notes  which — ah — must  be  honored,  Miss  Row 
land.  I  will  not  detain  you.  I  hope  you  will  find 
your  relative  better.  Should  anything — ah — occur  to 
change  your  intentions  concerning  your  return,  please 
apprise  me." 

He  let  her  go  at  last !  She  put  on  her  cloak  and 
hat  as  she  passed  swiftly  through  the  store,  and  had 


PHEXIE'8  TEMPTATION. 

just  cleared  the  outer  door  when  she  espied  an  empty 
carriage  coming  up  the  street.  In  her  haste  to  signal 
it,  she  slipped  upon  the  sodden  snow,  and  would  have 
fallen,  but  for  the  friendly  arm  of  a  gentleman  who 
was  passing.  "  Phemie  !  "  he  cried,  surprised  at  the 
encounter,  and  shocked  at  her  agitated  countenance. 
"  What  is  it  ?  Where  are  you  going  ? " 

"Home!  home!  Oh  !  stop  that  carriage!  I  have 
not  time  to  walk!  " 

Mr.  Hart  shouted  to  the  inattentive  driver;  led  her 
to  the  vehicle,  seated  her,  and  got  in  himself.  "  You 
must  let  me  see  you  home.  You  are  unfit  to  go 
alone.  What  has  happened,  my  poor  child  ?  " 

She  put  Emily's  note  into  his  hand,  and  covered 
her  face.  He  did  not  speak  at  once.  He  may  have 
waited  for  her  to  recover  her  self-command.  He  may 
have  been  at  a  loss  for  fitting  language.  When  he 
accosted  her,  it  was  with  words  of  hope  he  did  not 
feel,  nor  she  believe,  but  she  accounted  his  motive  to 
be  a  kind  one,  and  was  grateful. 

"  It  is  quite  true !  There  is  no  mistake.  My  heart 
tells  me  this,"  she  said  chokingly.  "  I  should  have 
known  it  last  night  and  this  morning.  But  I  was 
foolish  and  blind.  My  gentle  sister !  " 

Mr.  Hart's  reply  was  to  take  her  hand  and  hold  it 
closely  until  they  reached  her  mother's  door'.  There 
were  strength  and  comfort  in  the  clasp,  and  Phemie 
looked  up,  brave  and  tranquil  in  seeming,  when  he 
said,  "  We  are  at  home !  I  shall  wait  down  stairs  to 
hear  how  she  is." 

He  waited  half  an  hour   in   the  parlor — not  the 


142  PHEMI&S  TEMPTATION. 

study,  which  could  not  be  warmed  in  winter,  but  in 
the  larger  room,  also  cheerless  and  cold  to-day,  and 
the  scantiness  and  cheapness  of  the  furniture  the 
more  glaring  on  this  account.  Mr.  Hart  sympathized 
warmly  with  the  woman  he  loved  in  her  distress,  but 
his  mind  was  busier  with  other  things,  as  he  wan 
dered  up  and  down  the  narrow  limits,  stroking  his 
flowing  beard,  and  appearing  to  study  the  indistinct 
arabesques  of  the  ingrain  carpet.  This  was  the  home 
she  had  refused  to  desert  that  she  might  share  his ; 
this  life  of  pinching  poverty  and  heart-breaking  sor 
row  she  would  not  resign  at  his  prayer,  although  she 
loved  him.  "Would  Charlotte's  death  weaken  this 
resolution  ?  Hardly.  It  would,  it  was  more  likely, 
increase  her  burden,  since  this  sister  was  one  of  the 
money-makers  of  the  family.  He  sighed  heavily  and 
repeatedly,  in  contemplating  this  possibility.  Once 
he  muttered  audibly  : — 

"  I  wish  I  could  forget  the  girl  altogether !  I  can 
see  no  turning  to  this  lane.  It  looks  longer  and 

O  C7 

more  unpromising  every  day." 

Olive  came  down  after  a  while.  Her  eyes  were 
red  with  crying;  her  nose  and  lips  inflamed  and 
swollen.  It  would  have  puzzled  Joe  himself  to  trace 
any  likeness  in  her,  as  she  then  appeared,  to  her 
beautiful  sister. 

Charlotte  had  been  dead  an  hour. 

"  She  had  lain  in  a  sort  of  stupor  we  mistook  for 
sleep,  since  seven  o'clock,"  said  Olive,  "  until  at  noon 
she  opened  her  eyes  and  asked  for  Phemie.  Emily 
was  in  at  the  time,  and  she  saw  directly  that  she 


PUEMIE'S  TEMPTATION,  143 

was  dying.  The  worst  of  it  all  was  to  see  Phemie  go 
up  and  kiss  the  poor,  cold  lips  when  she  came  home. 
I  feel  really  very  uneasy  about  her.  She  hasn't  shed 
a  tear — yet  she  loved  Charlotte  better  than  she  did 
anything  else  in  the  world.  She  is  stunned — that  is 
what  is  the  matter — and  I  dread  the  reaction.  She 
told  me  to  thank  you,  Mr.  Hart,  for  your  kindness  in 
bringing  her  home.  You'll  excuse  her  not  coining 
down,  I  am  sure." 

Olive  was  always  painfully  precise  in  the  company 
of  her  sister's  friend.  He  was  "not  her  sort,"  she 
used  to  say  privately  to  Emily  and  Charlotte,  "  and 
she  couldn't  feel  easy  with  him." 

Mr.  Hart  said  a  phrase  of  polite  acquiescence ; 
another  of  condolence,  and  turned  to  go,  when  the 
door  opened  to  admit  a  tall,  sandy-haired  young  man, 
his  by-no-means-handsome  face  full  of  genuine  con 
cern,  and  Olive  forgot  her  awe  of  the  distingue 
publisher. 

"  O  Joe  !  "  she  screamed,  running  forward  to  throw 
herself  into  his  arms.  "  I  knew  you'd  come  right 
away.  She's  gone,  Joe,  dear  !  she's  gone!" 

Mr.  Hart  slipped  out,  unobserved.  But  the  light 
in  his  eye,  as  he  softly  closed  the  front  door,  did  not 
belong  to  a  house  of  mourning. 

He  sat  in  his  bachelor  parlor  the  next  evening, 
handsome  and  comfortable  in  his  dressing-gown  and 
slippers ;  a  cigar  between  his  lips,  a  new  novel  in  his 
hand,  and  a  decanter  of  sherry  within  reach  on  the 
beaufet,  when  a  lady  was  announced. 

"  Don't  throw  away  your  cigar,  Hart,"  said  Miss 


144  PUEMIE'S  TEMPTATION. 

Darcy's  even,  pleasant  voice,  close  behind  the  ser 
vant.  "  It  is  only  I.  And  don't  blame  the  ser 
vant  for  admitting  me.  I  told  him  you  would  see 
me." 

"  With  the  greatest  pleasure,"  returned  the  gentle 
man,  bringing  forward  a  seat — a  low,  lounging  Gre 
cian  chair,  with  a  soft,  yet  most  elastic  back  and 
seat. 

Miss  Darcy  set  it  aside,  and  helped  herself  to  an 
upright  one,  with  the  decided,  "I  prefer  this — thank 
you." 

"  I  ought  not  to  offer  you  a  cigar,  I  suppose,"  con 
tinued  Mr.  Hart,  smiling.  "  But  let  me  pour  out  a 
glass  of  wine  for  you,  after  your  walk  in  the  wet." 

Her  aqua  scutem  suit  was  splashed  with  mud  and 
rain.  "  I  should  as  soon  think  of  smoking  as  drink 
ing,"  was  the  rejoinder.  "I  never  take  cold  from 
exposure  to  the  weather.  Then,  again,  inward  heat 
is  good  for  keeping  off  chilliness.  I  am  boiling  over 
to-night." 

Mr.  Hart  was  attentive.  "  Nothing  unpleasant  has 
occurred,  I  trust  ? " 

"Would  I  fume  over  a  pleasant  occurrence?" 
asked  the  other,  curtly.  "I  was  in  at  Mrs.  Row 
land's  this  afternoon,  and  learned  that  Phemie  had 
been  at  the  desk  all  day,  in  Arnold's  store,  while  her 
sister  lay  dead  at  home." 

"  No ! "  interjected  the  listener. 

"  Yes  !  What  is  more,  Arnold  knew  she  meant  to 
be  there,  and,  so  far  from  preventing  her,  he  com 
mended  her  intention — accepted  the  act  as  his  due." 


PREMIE'S  TEMPTATION.  145 

"  He  is  an  unfeeling  brnte  ! " 

"  He  is  a  man ! "  was  Miss  Darcy's  amendment. 
"  Having  power,  he  likes  to  use  it.  What  right  has 
a  working-girl  to  nurse  her  private  woes  at  his  ex 
pense  ?  She  is  better  off,  as  it  is,  than  hundreds  of 
other  women,  for  her  health  is  good,  and  she  earns 
enough  to  keep  the  wolf,  Want,  from  her  household. 
I  could  tell  you  of  mothers  who  have  kept  their  dead 
babes  in  the  cradles  in  which  they  died  for  a  week,  be 
fore  they  could,  by  making  heavy  pantaloons  at  eight 
een  cents  a  pair,  scrape  together  the  money  to  buy  pine 
coffins  and  graves  in  the  corner  of  a  crowded  people's 
cemetery.  Phemie  Rowland  has  acquired  the  means 
of  procuring  Charlotte's  medicines  and  paying  the 
doctor's  bills  by  writing  stories  and  essays  for  our 
magazine.  These  were  penned — every  one  of  them 
— at  her  sister's  bedside.  They  could  not  afford  to 
keep  up  more  than  two  fires.  There  must  be  one  in 
the  kitchen.  The  other  was  in  Charlotte's  room. 
Phemie  divided  her"  time  between  the  bed  and  the 
desk,  the  elder  sister  stifling  her  deadly  cough  when 
ever  she  could,  lest  sympathy  with  her  suffering 
should  break  the  other's  train  of  thought.  For  these 

o 

articles — spicy  and  popular  as  they  are  acknowledged 
to  be — my  Superior,  Bundlecome,  pays  her  one  dollar 
per  MS.  page — foolscap  and  compactly  written.  This 
specimen  of  masculine  liberality  brings  us  back  to 
Mr.  Arnold.  Charlotte  is  to  be  buried  on  Friday. 
Phemie  is  bent  upon  going  back  to  her  post  to-mor 
row.  Arnold  deigned  to  inquire  to-day  how  her 
sister  was,  and  after  replying,  she  stated  her  desire 
T 


146  PHEMI&S  TEMPTATION. 

that  he  •would  obtain  a  substitute  for  her  on  the  day 
of  her  funeral.  Whereupon  he  '  supposed  he  must,' 
but  k  feared  he  should  find  it  difficult  to  procure  one 
who  would  act  for  one  day  only.'  My  business  here 
is  to  ask  from  you  a  line  recommending  me  to  this 
high-minded  gentleman  as  a  person  competent  to 
keep  his  books  for  twelve  hours.  I  would  go  to 
morrow,  too,  but  office-work  prevents.  I  understand 
book-keeping,  not  so  well  as  if  I  were  a  man,  of 
course  " — grimly  sardonic ;  "  but  I  have  taught  the 
art.  Phemie  Rowland  had  no  other  instructor. 
Several  of  my  pupils — boys — occupy  desks  in  the 
counting-rooms  of  prominent  merchants  in  this  city. 
I  knew  that  you  were  acquainted  with  this  Arnold, 
and  were  interested  in  the  Rowlands,  and  conceived 
the  idea  of  applying  to  you." 

"I  will  recommend  you,  certainly — without  hesi 
tation,"  answered  Mr.  Hart.  "  But  I  fancy  I  can  do 
better  for  our  friend  than  by  adopting  your  sugges 
tion  entire.  I  will  supply  her  place,  not  only  on  Fri 
day,  but  to-morrow  and  Saturday,  and  as  much  longer 
as  she  may  wish  to  be  relieved  from  business  cares. 
Her  substitute  shall  be  a  clerk  of  our  own — a  good 
accountant,  an  obliging  fellow,  and  quite  competent 
to  the  duties  of  the  place.  I  will  see  Arnold  about 
the  matter  to-night.  He  lives  on  the  next  block." 

Miss  Darcy's  eyes  twinkled.  "  You  have  a  way  of 
cheating  me  into  playing  the  baby  in  my  old  age,"  she 
said,  brusquely.  "  You  are  an  honor,  and  an  excep 
tion,  to  your  sex !  " 

Mr.  Hart  bowed  low.     "  Please  credit  my  sex  with 


PHEMIE'S  TEMPTATION.  147 

the  circumstance  that  there  are  exceptions  to  the  in 
glorious  whole !  Pray  believe  me,  furthermore,  when 
I  assert  that  there  are  not  fifty  men  in  the  city,  pro 
fessing  to  be  respectable,  who  would  not,  if  they  were 
made  acquainted  with  the  facts  you  have  stated,  con 
demn  Arnold's  course  as  I  do,  and  endeavor,  by  every 
means  at  their  command,  to  soften  the  rigor  of  Miss 
Rowland's  lot." 

"  I  am  too  much  obliged  to  you  to  controvert  your 
proposition,"  returned  Miss  Darcy.  "But  if  I  were 
not  gagged  by  gratitude,  I  could  bring  to  bear  upon 
the  point  some  other  facts — they  are  my  only  argu 
ments — that  might  compel  you  to  change  your  base. 
I  thank  you,  sincerely,  in  the  name  of  the  family,  and 
in  my  own,  for  your  timely  assistance.  And " — 
awkwardly,  for  one  so  frank  as  it  was  her  habit  to  be 
— "  please  send  the  substitute  to  me  for  his  pay.  I  act, 
in  this  case,  as  Phemie's  banker." 

The  other  looked  hurt.  "  That  neutralizes  the  ef 
fect  of  the  kind  things  you  have  been  saying  of  me. 
I  will  attend  to  all  that,  if  you  will  allow  me  the 
privilege.  Do  not  intimate  to  the  family  that  I  have 
had  anything  to  do  in  the  affair.  Arnold  shall  write 
a  note,  stating  that  Miss  Rowland's  place  is  supplied 
until  such  time  as  she  shall  choose  to  resume  it.  How 
is  she,  by  the  way  ?  Miss  Olive  described  her  yester 
day  as  apparently  stunned  by  the  shock  of  her  sister's 
death.  I  was  fearful  that  the  reaction  of  violent 
grief,  succeeding  her  unnatural  calmness,  would  be 
injurious." 

He  said  it  so  carelessly  as  to  be  clumsy  in  phrase 


14:8  PREMIERS  TEMPTATION: 

and  manner,  looking  away  from  his  companion,  at 
some  object  across  the  room.  Miss  Darcy  was  un 
suspicious,  and,  moreover,  absorbed  in  her  compas 
sionate  thoughts  of  the  afflicted  family. 

"  Reactions  are  not  commo'n  to  minds  like  hers," 
she  said,  half  proudly.  u  She  has  met  this  sorrow  as 
she  has  all  other  reverses — with  fortitude ;  with  no 
complaint  of  her  own  pain  ;  with  tenderest  love  and 
pity  for  those  who  suffer  with  her.  Yet  the  loss  is 
peculiarly  hers.  Charlotte  was  the  one  member  of 
her  family  who  thoroughly  appreciated  her,  and  loved 
her  aa  she  should  be  loved.  Mrs.  Rowland  idolizes 
her  own  miseries,  and  is  too  much  engaged  in  offering 
up  to  these  the  tribute  of  tears  and  sighs,  and  in  pa 
rading  her  stock  of  first-class  woes  for  the  mournful 
admiration  of  her  friends,  to  spare  many  thoughts  to 
her  daughters.  Olive  is  a  good-tempered,  industrious 
little  dumpling,  but  her  sphere  is  the  kitchen.  All 
her  ideas,  outside  of  this,  concentre  upon  the  man  she 
is  to  marry,  who  is  likewise  good-tempered  and  indus 
trious." 

"  I  saw  him  yesterday,  I  believe,"  said  Mr.  Hart,  yet 
more  carelessly.  "I  judged  them  to  be  a  pair  of  be 
trothed  lovers  from  their  meeting." 

o 

"  I  think  the  household  will  be  broken  up,  now," 
continued  Miss  Darcy.  "Mrs.  Rowland  was  dilating 
to  me,  to-day,  upon  the  excellent  offer  made  to  her  by 
her  widower  brother,  whom  she  visited  last  summer. 
He  is  older  than  she,  and  his  children  are  all  married. 
He  wants  her  to  live  with  him  and  take  charge  of  his 
house.  The  neighborhood  is  pleasant,  and  the  climate 


PHEMIE'S  TEMPTATION.  149 

agrees  admirably  with  her  health,  and  she  has  almost 
resolved  to  go,  so  soon  as  Olive  marries.  In  that 
event,  Phemie  will,  they  think,  reside  with  one  of  her 
wedded  sisters.  I  think  she  will  prefer,  for  reasons  I 
do  not  care  to  state,  to  engage  rooms  in  the  same 
house  with  me.  I  shall  propose  the  plan." 

Her  host  was  spinning  a  globular  paper-weight  on 
the  table — intent,  it  would  seem,  upon  making  it  de 
scribe  its  evolutions  upon  the  smallest  possible  pivot. 
He  looked  gravely  complacent  at  his  dexterity,  when 
he  picked  up  his  toy,  and  fell  to  balancing  it  upon  the 
tip  of  his  middle  finger.  "  That  is  your  plan — is  it  ? " 

Miss  Darcy  stared  at  him  hard  before  answering. 
"  It  is,"  she  said,  with  a  perplexed  air.  There  was 
something  in  his  manner  beyond  her  compre 
hension.  "  Can  you  think  of  a  better  ?  A  young, 
handsome  woman  like  her  would  be  talked  about  if 
she  lived  alone.  I  don't  mind  gossip,  where  I  am  the 
theme,  but  I  am  sensitive  for  Phemie.  Men  call  me 
a  dragon,  sometimes.  I  may  be  able  to  protect  her 
the  better  because  of  that  reputation." 

"  I  flatter  myself  that  I  can  propose  a  more  con 
venient,  and,  to  some  of  the  parties  concerned,  a 
pleasanter  arrangement."  Mr.  Hart  recovered  the 
toppling  globe  with  the  first  and  third  fingers,  and 
replaced  it  upon  the  table.  "  I  mean  to  marry  her 
myself." 

Miss  Darcy  shoved  her  chair  back  at  least  a  foot, 
stood  bolt  upright,  and  surveyed  him  with  a  kind  of 
angry  astonishment  he  found  very  diverting,  for  he 
laughed  his  gay,  light-hearted  laugh  in  asking : — 


150  PREMIE'S  TEMPTATION. 

"Why  not,  my  excellent  friend?" 

"  I  should  as  soon  have  thought  of  your  marrying 

**/•» 

He  laughed  more  heartily.  "  I  shouldn't." 
He  told  her  then,  with  grave,  real  feeling,  very  be 
coming  to  him,  of  the  rise  and  course  of  his  love,  of 
his  proposal,  of  her  rejection,  and  the  cause  of  it. 
Miss  Darcy  listened,  but  her  features  did  not  relax 
from  their  settled  uneasiness.  She  shook  her  head, 
when  he  had  finished,  resolutely  as  when  he  began, 
and  Miss  Darcy's  negative  nod  was  something  worth 
seeing  by  the  lovers  of  decided  measures. 

"It  won't  do!"  She  need  not  have. said  it  in 
words,  but  she  did.  "  You  are  a  good  soul  in  some 
respects,  Hart,  but  you  are  not  Phemie  Rowland's 
peer  in  intellect,  or  elevation  of  character  and  prin 
ciple.  You  have  too  many  masculine  foibles  and 
weaknesses.  When  she  finds  these  out  she  will  tire 
of  lying  at  your  feet  and  chanting  your  godlike  per 
fections.  I  have  noticed,  ever  since  she  first  met  you, 
that  she  overrated  you,  and  she  cannot  help  learning 
this  for  herself  in  time.  You  cannot  wear  stilts  for 
ever,  and  you  are  not  the  right  height  for  her  without 
them.  A  wife  must  not  overtop  her  husband,  if  she 
would  be  happy  with  him.  All  the  flimsy,  gilt- 
edged  manuals  of  Courtship  and  Marriage  will  tell 
you  that  much.  The  more  his  stature  exceeds  hers, 
the  better,  according  to  the  rules  that  now  control 
society.  You  believe  in,  and  are  governed  by  these 
rules.  You  would  not  allow  the  truth  of  Phemie's 
equality  with  your  princely  self,  if  you  were  put  upon 


PREMIE'S  TEMPTATION.  151 

your  oath.  All  this  stereotyped  cant  about  angel 
hood  and  superangelic  perfections  is  a  patent  drug 
invented  by  the  Father  of  lies  (note  the  masculine 
gender,  please !),  to  cozen  women  out  of  their  com 
mon  sense,  their  birthright  of  brains  and  individu 
ality.  In  this  age  a  woman  ignores  her  possession  of 
these  last  when  she  marries,  unless  her  husband  is 
one  out  of  a  million.  And  you  are  one  of  not  a  mil 
lion,  but  several  hundred  millions.  In  too  many 
instances,  the  second  party  to  the  marriage  contract 
-having  been  set  to  work,  by  the  time  she  could  lisp 
that  she  was  a  'little  girl,'  to  poison,  stifle,  and  up 
root  the  offensive  weed,  Individuality,  does  not  suffer 
intensely  when  she  is  forced  to  part  with  the  slender 
remains  of  it.  Phemie's  characteristics  are  strong, 
and  have  been  denned  distinctly  by  her  peculiar  ex 
perience.  She  has  a  work  to  do  in  the  world,  and 
you  would  hinder  her  from  doing  it  by  making  her 
the  appendage  to  your  social  distinction  and  wealth." 
"  Your  candor  is  oppressive !  "  Her  auditor  bit  his 
lip,  and  his  slender,  white  lingers  closed  upon  the 
glass  globe  with  a  tenacity  that  looked  cruel  and  dan 
gerous.  "  It  is  fortunate  for  me  that  Miss  Rowland 
may  have  formed  a  more  charitable  opinion  of  my 
character,  and  may  hold  different  views  respecting  her 
lot  in  life." 

.  "That  is  what  I  fear!  "  replied  Miss  Darcy,  more 
and  more  disturbed,  and  as  observant  of  his  displeas 
ure  as  an  elephant  would  be  of  the  buzzing  of  a  fly 
upon  the  extremity  of  his  tusk.  "  She  has  not  awak 
ened  yet  to  the  consciousness  of  her  own  powers.  Her 


152  PREMIER  TEMPTATION. 

wings  are  just  growing.  She  would  be  a  true  help 
mate  to  a  great  scholar,  or  a  man  who  had  it  in  him 
to  achieve  eminence  in  any  department  of  letters. 
You  will  hardly  distinguish  yourself  in  anything 
really  worthy  the  trouble  of  intellectual  effort.  The 
city  is  full  of  men  like  you — highly  respectable,  in 
telligent  enough  for  the  demands  of  general  society, 
'  well  up '  in  dilettanteism  when  the  fine  arts  and 
books  are  the  subject  of  talk,  and  liberal  patrons  of 
rising  genius.  The  world  could  not  spare  you.  Yon 
fill  a  niche  seemingly  more  important  than  many 
pedestals  in  the  Temple  of  Fame.  But  you  are  only 
the  sons  of  men,  after  all,  and  when  you  wed  with 
women  of  genius  it  is  the  story  of  the  '  Loves  of  the 
Angels,'  with  a  difference  in  the  sex  of  the  higher 
intelligence.  I  am  talking  too  plainly,  maybe,"  the 
idea  suddenly  presenting  itself  to  her  straightfor 
ward  apprehension.  "  But  while  my  chief  solicitude 
is  for  Phemie's  happiness,  I  am  considering  yours 
also.  You  admire  her  beauty,  her  grace,  her  rare 
fascination  of  manner  and  conversation,  and  you  de 
ceive  yourself  with  the  notion  that  you  have  read  her 
through  to  the  last  leaf.  Whereas  you  have  only  in 
spected  the  binding  and  the  title-page.  If  she  were 
your  wife,  you  would  continue  to  regard  her  with  the 
same  feeling  in  kind,  although  not  in  degree,  as  that 
which  excites  you  to  animation  when  you  examine 
one  of  your  finest  Elzevirs.  You  will  either  dwarf 
her,  or  she  will  outgrow  you  so  far  that  people  will 
perceive  and  remark  upon  it,  and  by-and-by  you  will 
suspect  it  yourself.  Then  you  will  never  see  another 


PHEMLETS  TEMPTATION.  153 

happy  hour — either  of  you.  Superiority  on  the  part 
of  a  wife  is  an  unpardonable  sin,  unforgivable  by  the 
husband,  pitied  by  the  world  with  a  sneering  com 
passion  that  is  more  galling  than  obloquy.  Good 
heavens  !  "  the  strong-minded  woman  interrupted  her 
self  to  say,  rising  in  the  intensity  of  her  emotion  and 
walking  very  fast  to  and  fro  through  the  spacious 
room.  "  Are  not  the  biographies  of  gifted  women  so 
many  blood-red  beacons,  telling  how  loving  hearts 
split  and  went  down  upon  the  reef  of  popular  preju 
dice,  or  ran  a-foul  of  unmanly  envy — so  called — (I 
should  say  it  was  essentially  manly,  myself!)  or  were 
pierced  through  and  through  by  hatred  that  once 
went  by  the  name  of  affection ; — affection  changed  to 
wrath  and  rancor  by  the  knowledge  that  what  should 
have  remained  the  weaker  vessel,  was,  in  reality,  the 
nobler,  more  sea-worthy  barque  of  the  two  !  Don't 
marry  this  girl,  Hart.  If  you  crush  her,  she  will 
cease  to  respect  you,  and  be  miserable  beyond  your 
powers  of  conception.  If  she  should  outshine  you, 
you  will  hate  her.  I  am  rough  of  speech,  but  mine 
are  the  words  of  truth  and  soberness.  Nobody  else 
will  ever  warn  you  as  I  have  done — and  done  in  sin 
cere  kindness  and  good-will." 

"  I  hope  not,  indeed ! "  The  dark-gray  eyes  were 
murky,  and  the  lips  contorted  by  a. cold  sneer.  "When 
you  are  more  sane,  Miss  Darcy,  you  will  bear  me 
witness  that  this  attack  was  unprovoked  by  me.  You 
may — you  will,  doubtless,  try  the  effect  of  your  elo 
quence  upon  Miss  Rowland  as  you  have  done  upon 
me — probably  with  more  signal  effect.  As  I  am,  un- 


154:  PREMIE'S  TEMPTATION. 

fortunate!}'  for  me,  a  gentleman,  I  cannot  recriminate 
upon  a  woman.  It  should  be  a  cause  of  continual 
rejoicing  with  you  and  your  sisters  that  our  accursed 
sex  has  not  this  privilege." 

"  Why,  bless  my  soul ! "  cried  Miss  Darcy,  in 
amazement,  "the  man  is  angry  with  me  !  I  had  not 
a  thought  of  wounding  or  displeasing  you.  If  I  have 
been  rude,  I  beg  your  pardon  a  thousand  times.  I 
told  you,  at  the  outset,  that  I  liked  you.  I  have  said, 
it  is  true,  that  you  were  not  Phemie's  equal,  but  you 
repeated  that  twice  during  your  narrative  of  how  you 
happened  to  fall  in  love  with  her.  .1  added  that  a 
man  should  be  his  wife's  peer  in  something  beside 
physical  stature  and  strength.  You  cannot  deny 
that.  I  assumed  that  your  design  in  marrying  was 
to  increase  your  happiness,  and  I  thought  it  was  but 
friendly  to  state  my  conviction  that  you  were  not 
likely  to  do  this  by  carrying  out  your  present  scheme. 
But  as  to  saying  a  word  to  Pheinie  derogatory  of  you, 
or  interfering  with  the  success  of  your  suit,  that  would 
be  taking  a  base  advantage  of  your  confidence.  I  will 
go  now.  Maybe,  when  you  come  to  think  over  what 
has  passed,  you  will  do  my  motives  justice,  if  you 
cannot  subscribe  to  the  truth  of  my  language.  I 
cannot  say  that  I  wish  you  may  win  Phemie,  for,  in 
my  judgment,  you  would  be  better  apart.  Neverthe 
less  I  shall  offer  no  obstacle  to  your  wooing ;  and,  if 
you  should  marry  her,  I  hope  from  the  bottom  of  my 
heart  that  you  may  be  very  happy,  and  that  you  will 
cherish  her  as  she  should  be  loved  and  treasured." 


CHAPTER  YIII. 

•T  was  Tuesday  morning  in   Joe  Bonney's 
neat  two-story  tenement  in  Yiolet  Street. 

Tuesday  morning — I  may  explain  for  the 
enlightenment  of  those  who  hold  dignified 
and  indolent  court  over  a  staff  of  well- 
appointed  servants  in  brown-stone  four-story  mansions 
in  purlieus  where  there  are  remote  suggestions — in 
green  door-yards  and  walled  inclosures,  gardens  by 
courtesy,  forty  by  twenty-four,  with  a  fountain  in  the 
middle  and  a  tree  on  each  side  of  the  same — that 
violets  may  once  have  been  plucked  there — Tuesday 
morning,  I  take  leave  to  state  to  those  whose  incomes 
are  immoderate,  is  but  one  remove  from  the  whirl 
and  chaos  and  general  upsidedownity  of  Monday,  to 
people  living  upon  moderate  incomes  in  two-floored 
"  bricks  "  in  unfashionable  precincts.  By  what  human 
ordinance  or  Providential  intimation  it  was  originally 
appointed  unto  womankind  to  lay  hold  of  the  log  of 
the  week  by  the  heaviest  and  most  knobby  end,  I 
never  expect  to  know.  It  is  one  of  the  institutions 


156  PREMIE'S  TEMPTATION. 

that  remain  because  they  are  institutions.  It  is — and 
it  has  been  from  time  immemorial,  and  it  will  be 
until  the  end  of  this  reeling  old  globe  of  ours — the 

o  o 

law  of  thrifty  housewives  that  eyes  anointed  by  the 
blessed  sleep  of  Sabbath  night  shall  be  unsealed  by 
cock-crow  to  smart  and  water  in  the  smoke  of  boiling 
suds;  that  the  hands  lately  folded  in  prayer  and 
crossed  in  sacred  decency  through  the  hallowed  hours, 
shall  rub,  and  redden,  and  roughen  over  the  bleached 
ridges  of  wooden  wash-boards,  or  the  luckless  laborer 
lose  temper  and  cuticle  together  as  the  knuckles 
abrade  against  the  treacherous  grooves  of  metal 
"  patents  ;"  that,  what  with  lifting  boilers  and  tubs, 
and  wringing,  and  starching,  and  hanging  out,  and 
folding  down,  the  priestess  of  that  unblessed  day  in 
the  calendar,  and  her  co-workers  shall  be,  by  night, 
separated  from  Sunday  quiet  and  Sunday  thoughts  by 
such  an  abyss  of  unsavory  odors  and  sweltering  heats ; 
by  such  backaches  and  headaches,  and  armaches  and 
legaches,  that  the  recollection  is  like  a  dream  of 
doubtful  authenticity,  and  the  hope  that  the  like  will 
ever  recur  is  frightfully  counterbalanced  by  the  re 
flection  that  if  it  should,  it  would  be  the  day  before 
Monday. 

Tuesday  is  one  remove  from  this  woful  period,  as  I 
have  remarked  less  dolorously  than  in  alluding  to 
the  soapy  age  in  the  hebdomadal  formation.  The 
deluge  of  fetid  suds  has  dried  from  off  the  domestic 
world,  but  the  bravest  dove  that  ever  flew  would  not 
alight  upon  the  debris  it  has  left.  The  dainty  appe 
tites  which  revolted  yesterday  at  the  "  pick-up"  break- 


PREMIERS  TEMPTATION.  157 

fast,  dinner,  and  supper,  will  derive  little  stay  on  this 
day  from  the  stale  loaf  unsupported  by  muffins,  grid 
dle-cakes,  or  biscuit  that  typifies  the  staff  of  life  at  the 
morning  meal,  or  the  two  dishes  of  vegetables  that 
flank  the  hurriedly-prepared  steak  at  dinner,  or  the 
staler  loaf  and  chipped  beef  forming  the  Thanksgiv 
ing  feast  after  the  family  linen  is  once  more  gotten  up. 
Ti^e  kitchen  is  hot  as  it  was  on  Monday,  with  the 
difference  that  the  atmosphere  reminds  one  to-day  of 
a  lime-kiln  more  than  of  a  vapor-bath.  The  haste 
and  labor  are  the  same  in  extent,  but  have  a  charac 
ter  of  their  own  arising  from  the  pervading  and  over 
whelming  sense  of  dryness  and  the  smell  of  the  heated 
irons,  calling  to  the  imagination  the  fable  of  the  tor 
ture  chamber  which  had  a  furnace  in  the  cellar, 
while  the  walls  were  composed  of  metal  plates. 

It  was  still  early — just  nine  o'clock  A.  M.  on  this 
particular  March  Tuesday — but  Mrs.  Bonney's  one 
servant,  a  brisk  mulatto,  was  plying  one  of  the  un 
couth  truncated  triangles,  aptly  denominated  sad 
irons,  and  Olive  herself  was  busy  at  another  table 
compounding  a  veal  scallop  for  dinner.  They  had 
had  a  breast  of  veal  hot  on  Sunday — Joe  liked  a  good 
dinner  on  that  day  ;  and  because  Joe  did  not  like  cold 
meat  at  noon,  his  wife  had  steamed  it  for  him  on  Mon 
day  by  setting  a  cullender,  closely  covered,  over  a  pot 
of  boiling  water.  To-day,  the  ingenious  and  indefati 
gable  economist  would  serve  it  lip  to  him  in  a  still 
different  shape,  which,  if  he  had  a  choice,  he  prefer 
red  to  any  other.  A  layer  of  the  meat,  finely-minced, 
was  put  in  the  bottom  of  a  baking-dish,  a  little  salt 


158  PHEMIE'S  TEMPTATION. 

and  pepper  sprinkled  over  it,  a  few  bits  of  butter 
added,  then  a  layer  of  bread-crumbs,  and  another  of 
meat,  proceeding  in  the  same -order  until  the  dish  was 
full,  the  upper  stratum  to  be  bread-crumbs  moistened 
plentifully  with  milk,  in  which  an  egg  had  been 
beaten.  Before  this  crust  went  on,  however,  she  put 
in  gravy  enough  to  keep  the  lower  strata  from  insipid 
dryness — and  behold  a  dish  that,  with  mashed  pota 
toes,  and  stewed  tomatoes,  and  half  a  mince-pie  left 
over  from  Monday — it  took  the  three  two  days  to  dis 
patch  a  pie — would  make  a  dinner  n't  for  therelishful 
discussion  of  a  richer  man,  and  one  more  epicurean 
in  his  tastes  than  honest,  easy  Joe  Bonney. 

Olive  looked  contented  and  happy  as  she  went  nim 
bly  on  with  her  work,  chatting  the  while  with  her  do 
mestic  more  familiarly  than  most  mistresses  would  do. 
But  "  Jane  was  a  perfect  treasure,"  she  never  failed 
to  disclose  when  she  talked  "  house  "  with  other  ma 
trons.  "  One  of  the  kind  who  never  presumes,  you 
know.  She  is  really  a  deal  of  company  for  me,  and 
so  handy  and  willing  !  "  Jane  might  have  echoed  the 
last  encomium  and  applied  it  to  her  mistress.  Olive 
was  an  admirable  housekeeper,  and  dearly  enjoyed  the 
business  in  all  its  departments. 

"  Yes,  we  are  all  married,  now,"  she  answered 
a  query  relative  to  her  family.  "That  is,  all  of  us 
girls.  My  wedding-day  is  next  Friday,  and  I  should 
like  to  celebrate  it  by  a  family  gathering,  only  we  are 
so  scattered.  Mother  is  four  hundred  miles  away,  and 
my  sister  Euphemia,  Mrs.  Hart,  who  was  married  a 
month  later  than  I  was,  is  nearer  four  thousand.  She 


PHEMIE'S  TEMPTATION.  159 

went  abroad  three  weeks  after  her  marriage,  and  they 
have  been  travelling  ever  since." 

"  Her  husband  must  be  very  rich,"  remarked  the 
servant,  taking  a  hot  iron  from  the  range. 

"  He  is — and  very  liberal  with  his  money.  Both 
my  sisters  married  richer  men  than  I  did,  but  I  never 
minded  that  a  bit.  1  couldn't  be  happier  than  I  am 
— not  if  I  had  a  gold  mine.  Nobody  in  the  world 
has  a  better  husband  than  mine." 

"  Mr.  Bonney  is  a  very  nice  man,"  assented  Jane, 
"  and  a  real  generous  provider.  I've  seen  millionaires 
that  stinted  in  their  kitchens." 

"That  is  true !  "  said  Olive,  heartily.  "  He  never 
lets  me  want  for  a  thing  which  he  can  buy.  We  are 
well  enough  off  for  young  people.  I  wasn't  cut  out 
for  a  fashionable  lady.  Mrs.  Mandell  has  more  taste 
for  that  sort  of  show  than  I  have,  and  she  is  able  to 
gratify  it.  Mrs.  Hart  is  the  handsomest  of  us  all. 
She  was  born  stylish.  She  always  looked  like  a 
queen,  even  when  she  had  on  a  calico  wrapper,  and 
she  is  very  smart." 

"About  work?"  inquired  the  mulatto,  to  whom 
the  word  had  but  one  meaning. 

"  Yes.  She  could  do  anything  she  chose  to  turn 
her  hand  to  ;  but  she  was  particularly  clever  about 
books  and  writing,  and  all  that,  you  know.  I  sup 
pose  that  was  one  reason  why  she  married  a  book 
seller." 

"  Does  she  help  him  make  the  books  ? " 

"  Why,  no  !  What  an  idea !  Not  that  she  couldn't 
if  she  wanted  to,  but  he  is  so  wealthy  she  need  not 


160  PHEMIE'S  TEMPTATION. 

lift  a  finger,  if  she  doesn't  wish  it.  He  has  taken  her 
to  see  all  sorts  of  wonderful  things  while  they  have 
been  travelling,  but  she  writes  that  she  is  longing 
for  a  home  in  America.  I  don't  wonder  at  it.  I 
should  be  tired  to  death  running  about,  living  in 
hotels  and  the  like  for  twelve  months.  Give  me  a 
quiet  dwelling  in  my  native  place  and  plenty  to  do  in 
it.  That  is  my  idea  of  comfort !  Mercy !  " 

She  jumped  back  at  the  peal  of  a  bell  projecting  on 
a  spring  from  the  wall  above  the  table.  "  I  shall 
never  get  used  to  that !  It  always  takes  me  by  sur 
prise.  It's  lucky  it  didn't  wake  baby !  Step  to  the 
door,  will  you,  Jane  ?  It  can't  be  a  call.  It's  too  early." 

Notwithstanding  her  self-gratulation  upon  the 
bahy's  unimpaired  slumber,  she  deemed  it  safest  to 
step  into  the  adjoining  dining-room  where  his  cradle 
stood,  to  be  quite  sure  of  what  she  had  stated.  All 
was  right,  and,  returning  to  the  kitchen,  her  greasy 
hands  held  out  before  her  in  the  stiff  manner  common 
to  cooks  who  do  not  think  it  necessary  to  wash  their 
fingers  for  every  trivial  interruption  in  their  work, 
she  espied  behind  Jane,  whose  countenance  was  a 
mixture  of  perplexity  and  curiosity,  the  figure  of  a 
lady.  She  had  her  back  to  the  window,  and  the 
style  of  her  hat  and  cut  of  her  cloak  being  strange 
to  Olive,  she  recoiled,  with  a  faint  exclamation  of 
dismay. 

"Why,  Oily!  don't  you  know  me? "said  an  un 
changed  voice;  and  Olive  forgot  her  objectionable 
digits,  her  kitchen-apron  and  ironing  day,  and  sprang 
forward  to  greet  her  sister. 


PREMIE'S  TEMPTAIION.  161 

"  Pliemie !  this  can't  be  you  !  " 

"  It  is  nobody  else,  at  any  rate,  Oily  !  How  well 
you  look !  I  am  glad  I  caught  you  in  the  kitchen. 
You  would  not  be  so  completely  the  dear  old  Olive 
anywhere  else.  Don't  let  me  retard  your  work  !  I 
will  sit  down  here  until  you  are  through." 

She  was  the  old  Phemie  in  ease  and  self-possession, 
in  her  faculty  of  saying  the  right  thing  in  the  right 
time  and  in  few  words.  Even  Jane  recognized  this 

o 

quality  of  manner,  as  she  had  seen,  at  a  glance,  that 
her  dress,  although  she  wore  a  plain  black  reps,  a 
black  cloth  cloak,  and  a  shirred  silk  hat,  without 
flowers,  feathers,  or,  more  tawdry  than  either,  bugles, 
had  a  style  of  its  own,  far  more  elegant,  and  alto 
gether  unlike  the  costumes  of  the  generality  of  Mrs. 
Bonney's  visitors. 

"  This  is  Jane !  "  Olive  said,  wiping  off  the  tears 
that  had  overtaken  her  at  the  unlooked-for  meeting. 
"  Jane,  this  is  my  sister,  Mrs.  Hart.  We  were  just 
talking  about  you,  Phemie.  Wasn't  it  queer  ?  " 

Phemie  bowed  smilingly  to  the  woman,  and  there 
by  completed  her  conquest.  "How  do  you  do, 
Jane  ?  Mrs.  Bonney  has  written  to  me  of  her  good 
fortune  in  securing  your  services.  What  are  you 
making,  Oily?  One  of  your  famous  scallops,  I  de 
clare  !  How  deliciously  familiar  it  looks !  I  recol 
lect  the  savory  odor  as  well  as  if  I  had  seen  it  smok 
ing  on  the  table  yesterday.  How  is  Mr.  Bonney  ? 
And  the  baby  ?  I  heard  of  his  arrival  just  before 
we  left  Europe.  He  is  two  months  old,  now,  isn't 
he?" 


1 62  PREMIERS  TEMPTATION. 

"  And  four  days,"  said  the  proud  mother.  "  Come 
and  see  him  !  " 

"  But  the  scallop  ? " 

""  It  can  wait.  Fll  just  set  it  into  the  back  kitchen 
to  keep  cool,  and  finish  it  by  and  by.  It  requires 
only  three-quarters  of  an  hour  to  bake,  you  know," 
said  Olive,  naively. 

She  carried  it  into  the  back  room  ;  washed  her 
hands  at  the  kitchen  sink,  and  drawing  her  sleeves 
over  her  plump  wrists,  led  the  way  to  a  neat  dining- 
room,  furnished  for  use  rather  than  show.  There, 
Master  Joseph  Mandell  Bonney  was  discovered  lying 
in  state  in  a  walnut  cradle,  muffled  up  to  the  chin  in 
comfortable,  sensible  blankets,  capped  by  a  patch 
work  quilt  that  might  have  been,  for  its  many  colors, 
the  skirt  of  Joseph's  coat. 

"  Isn't  he  splendid  ? "  whispered  the  mother,  as  her 
sister  bent  over  the  pink  face  and  touched  lightly, 
with  a  blending  of  reverence  and  wistfnlness,  that 
impressed  Olive  as  odd,  but  beautiful  and  "  somehow 
sorrowful " — the  closed  hand  lying  on  the  outside  of 
the  coverlet. 

"  He  is  a  treasure  above  rubies,"  was  the  answer. 
"  You  have  everything  to  make  you  happy,  Olive." 

"  Haven't  I  ?  Sit  down  !  "  said  Olive,  eagerly. 
"  I  was  saying  the  same  thing  to  Jane,  not  ten  mi 
nutes  ago.  I  am  afraid  I  am  too  contented,  Phemie. 
You  can  have  no  idea  of  what  a  husband  Joe  is.  He 
isn't  literary,  of  course,  or  I  shouldn't  know  how  to 
talk  to  him  ;  but  he  has  such  excellent  judgment  and 
sound  sense !  and  as  for  his  temper,  I  couldn't  say 


PHEMIE'S  TEMPTATION.  163 

enough  in  praise  of  it,  if  I  were  to  talk  all  day. 
Sick  or  well — and  lie  does  have  shocking  bilious 
turns,  once  in  a  while — he  is  always  the  same  ;  ready 
with  a  smile,  or  a  kind  word  ;  and  you  wouldn't  be 
lieve  what  care  he  takes  of  me.  After  baby  was 
born,  he  spent  every  minute  he  could  spare  from  the 
store  with  me,  and  I  could  not  have  had  a  better 
nurse.  He  gave  me  my  meals  with  his  own  hands, 
and  was  forever  bringing  me  nice  things  to  eat — fruit, 
and  the  like.  My  nurse  said  she  had  never  seen 
such  another  man.  Last  Saturday  he  brought  me 
home  the  prettiest  black  silk  dress,  '  to  pay  me  for 
the  boy,'  he  said.  Wasn't  it  sweet  and  delicate  in 
him  ?  He's  getting  on  nicely  with  his  business,  too. 
I  was  brought  up  to  economical  habits,  you  know, 
but  if  he  does  as  well  in  future  as  he  is  doing  now, 
we  shall  be  quite  rich  in  ten  years.  Emily — have 
you  seen  Emily  ?  " 

"  No.  We  only  arrived  last  night.  I  came  to  you 
directly  I  had  my  breakfast." 

"  Where  are  you  staying  ? " 

"  At  the  Lacroix  Hotel.     What  about  Emily  ? " 

"  I  was  going  to  say  that  Emily  told  me,  the  other 
day,  that  Seth  says  there  is  not  a  man  in  town,  who 
has  been  in  business  so  short  a  time  as  Joe  has,  whose 
name  is  more  respected.  I  was  so  proud  and  happy 
when  I  heard  that,  I  could  have  cried  heartily.  It  is 
such  a  delight  to  be  able  to  look  up  to  one's  hus 
band,  you  know,  Phemie  ? " 

"  You  are  a  good  wife ! "  Phemie  laid  her 
hand  affectionately  upon  her  sister's.  "  I  like  to 


164  PHEMIE'8  TEMPTATION. 

hear  you  talk  of  yourself  and  your  household  treas 
ures.  Baby  is  large  of  his  age,  isn't  he?  I  don't 
know  much  about  babies,  but  he  seems  to  me  a  mar 
vellously  fine  specimen  for  two  months  old." 

"  Large  J     I  should  think  so  !  "      Delighted  Olive 

O  CU 

caught  her  up.  "  He  weighed  ten  pounds  when  he 
was  born.  Nurse  said  she  hadn't  seen  another  like 
him  in  five  years.  And  he  is  the  best  little  thing ! 
He  hardly  ever  cries  except  when  he  has  the  colic. 
All  healthy  babies  have  that,  you  know.  He  recog 
nizes  his  father  already.  Whenever  Joe  comes  in, 
Baby  turns  his  eyes  towards  him,  and  twice  he  has 
laughed  right  out  when  his  father  had  him  in  his 
arms.  I  have  no  trouble  with  him  when  papa  is 
in  the  house.  He  tends  him  beautifully.  One  night, 
when  he  had  the  colic  awfiMy,  the  blessed  man 
walked  the  floor  with  him  three  hours  without  stop 
ping.  Yet  he  was  quite  angry  the  next  day,  when 
Jane  said  what  a  pity  it  was  Baby  had  been  so  cross 
and  broken  his — Joe's  rest.  '  Cross  ! '  said  Joe,  more 
fiercely  than  I  had  ever  heard  him  speak  before. 
'  There's  not  another  child  in  the  country  that 
wouldn't  have  cried  twice  as  much  with  the  same 
pain.  He  is  never  cross ;  and  as  to  my  rest,  I  had 
rather  walk  with  him  than  sleep,  any  night !  " 

"  You  have  named  him  for  his  father,  haven't  you  ?  " 
"  Oh,  yes  !  Mother  wrote  that  we  must  call  him 
*  Rowland,'  and  dear  Joe  was  for  naming  him  Oliver 
after  me.  Miss  Darcy  said  something  witty  about 
Rowland  and  Oliver.  Joe  can  tell  it  to  you  exactly, 
but  I  always  spoil  a  joke  when  I  try  to  repeat  it. 


PREMIERS  TEMPTATION.  165 

But  no,  I  said,  he  should  be  his  father's  ownty-townty 
boy,  and  have  his  papa's  name,  so  he  should."  She 
cooed  the  last  sentence  in  the  ear  of  the  fat  baby, 
stooping  to  lift  him  as  he  stretched  out  his  dumpy 
arms  and  unclosed  his  pink  lids.  "  Come  to  its 
mother,  beauty,  and  show  Aunt  Phemie  that  he  has 
his  papa's  eyes." 

The  paternal  orbs  being  a  light  blue-gray,  and  so 
prominent  as  to  convey  the  impression  of  distressing 
near-sightedness,  the  pulchritude  of  the  scion  was 
not  enhanced  by  the  revelation  of  the  amazing  like 
ness  between  the  two  pairs ;  but  Phemie  was  in  no 
humor  for  smiling,  as  she  took  the  helpless  little  being 
into  her  arms  and  kissed  its  forehead. 

"  I  wish  you  had  one  of  your  own,  dear !  "  said 
Olive,  fervently,  moved  by  this  appreciation  of  her 
darling  to  increased  warmtl^of  affection  for  the  long- 
absent  relative. 

"  I  would  not  leave  you  childless,  even  to  have  one 
for  myself,"  returned  her  sister.  "  You  were  always 
a  great  baby-lover,  Oily.  Nobody  deserves  better  to 
have  him  than  you  do — unless  it  be  Joe.  When  did 
you  hear  from  mother  ? " 

A  family  talk  ensued  in  which  Phemie  questioned, 
and  Olive  answered  so  diffusively  and  so  much  to  her 
own  satisfaction,  that  she  was  amazed  when  her  sister 
arose  to  depart,  with  the  announcement  that  it  was 
eleven  o'clock. 

"  I  have  to  see  Emily  and  then  pay  Miss  Darcy  a 
visit  before  our  one  o'clock  luncheon,"  she  added,  in 
apology  for  her  haste. 


166  PHEMIKS  TEMPTATION. 

"  Stay  and  dine  with  us  ! "  urged  Olive.  "  Or 
come  back  when  you  have  been  to  Emily's.  Joe 
will  be  delighted  to  see  you.  He  thinks  you  the  first 
of  living  women  still,  although  he  loves  me  best. 
That  is  because  I  suit  him  better  than  you  would 
have  done.  But  he  has  the  highest  regard  for  you." 

"  Not  more  than  I  have  for  him.  I  cannot  stay, 
however,  much  as  I  want  to  meet  him.  It  is  possible 
that  Mr.  Hart  may  be  in  to  luncheon,  and  if  he 
should,  he  will  expect  to  see  me." 

"  I  haven't  had  time  to  ask  you  about  him!  "  ejac 
ulated  Mrs.  Bonney,  conscience-smitten  at  her  delin 
quency.  "  How  is  he  ?  The  fact  is,  Phemie,  I  have 
never  been  able  to  think  of  you  two  as  one.  I 
never  associate  him  with  you  in  my  mind." 

"  That  is  easily  explained.  You  have  seen  so  lit 
tle  of  us  since  we  were  married,"  rejoined  Phemie, 
quietly.  "  He  is  well,  thank  you,  and  I  suppose  very 
busy.  He  has  been  away  from  home  long  enough  to 
find  a  mountain  of  work  accumulated  against  his  re 
turn." 

"  I  know !  Seth  and  Joe  were  talking  about  that 
last  Sunday  night.  They  were  wondering  how  he 
could  be  spared  for  so  many  months  at  a  time.  Seth 
said  he  wouldn't  trust  any  partner  out  of  his  sight 
for  almost  a  year.  I  suppose,  though,  that  Mr.  Mai- 
lory  is  a  reliable  man,  and  that  Mr.  Hart  understands 
his  own  business  best.  That's  what  Joe  remarked 
when  Seth  and  Emily  had  gone  home.  He  holds 
that  everything  connected  with  vou  should  be  per 
fect." 


PHEMI&B  TEMPTATION.  167 

"  He  is  very  kind  !  "  responded  Phemie.  "  Mr. 
Hart  has  entire  confidence  in  Mr.  Mallory.  They 
have  been  friends  for  years." 

"  Do  you  always  call  him  '  Mr.  Hart  2 '  How 
formal  it  sounds!"  said  Olive,  curiously. 

"  I  call  him  '  Robert '  when  I  speak  to  him,  unless 
there  are  others  by.  I  have  fallen  into  the  address 
you  speak  of,  because  we  have  been  surrounded  by 
strangers  so  long." 

"  And  you  won't  stay  to  dinner  ?  "  Olive  expostu 
lated,  attending  her  guest  to  the  upper  hall.  "  You 
don't  eat  scallop,  I  know,  nor  mince  pie  ;  but  I  will 
have  potatoes,  and  milk,  and  brown  biscuit.  Joe 
always  eats  Graham,  bread." 

"  Oh,  I  am  not  a  strict  vegetarian  now  ;  I  found 
it  inconvenient  while  we  were  abroad.  A  taste  for 
meat  is  one  of  the  foreign  habits  I  have  brought  home 
with  me.  But  I  cannot  stay  to-day.  I  shall  call 
again  soon." 

"  Joe  and  I  may  run  in  to  see  you  this  evening," 
suggested  Mrs.  Bonney.  "  He  will  be  wild  to  meet 
you,  when  he  hears  you  are  back.  These  are  my 
parlors.  Walk  in !  " 

With  housewifely  pride  she  opened  a  shutter,  and 
let  in  the  light  upon  the  Brussels  carpet,  with  its 
sprawling  wreaths  of  stupendous  flowers,  unlike  any 
floral  fleaks  displayed  by  Nature  since  the  birth  of 
Adam ;  the  hair-cloth,  sofa-backed  and  bottomed 
chairs  and  lounges ;  the  bright  mahogany  centre- 
table  and  quartette  of  spiral-legged  stands  ;  the  em 
broidered  ottomans  and  mantel  ornaments  of  very 


168  PHEMI&S  TEMPTATION. 

mock  Parian.  For  the  last  gems  of  art,  Olive  had 
bartered  a  huge  bagful  of  cast-off  clothing,  includ 
ing  two  pairs  of  Joe's  pantaloons,  a  coat,  and  a  vest, 
so  neglected  before  his  marriage  that  his  thrifty 
spouse  sorrowfully  pronounced  them  irreparable,  and 
considered  the  groups  of  the  sleeping  shepherdess 
and  sleepless  fawn  ;  the  two  gentlemen  in  cocked 
hats,  full-bottomed  wigs  and  knee-buckles,  playing 
chess,  and  the  more  touching  tableau  of  the  youth 
with  powdered  curls  and  rapier,  holding  fast  to  the 
waist  of  the  lady,  in  stomacher,  farthingale,  and  high- 
heeled  slippers — so  much  clear  gain.  She  called  her 
sister's  attention  to  these,  after  allowing  her  time  for 
a  cursory  survey  of  the  apartments. 

"  I  suppose  you  saw  a  great  deal  of  this  species  of 
work  abroad.  We  consider  these  very  neatly-exe 
cuted — really  spirited  casts." 

She  was  astonished  at  her  own  command  of  art- 
phrases.  It  must  have  been  the  inspiration  of  the 
marbles.  (?) 

"  We  saw  many  celebrated  statues,"  rejoined  the 
other.  "  Oily  !  I  should  have  known  who  was  the 
mistress  of  this  house  if  I  had  entered  it  accidentally. 
You  are  the  same  neat  busy-bee  as  ever.  Tell  Joe 
from  me  that  his  wife  is  a  jewel — something  better, 
for  jewels  have  no  intrinsic  worth.  Good-by,  dear  1 
Cannot  you  spare  a  morning  to  me  before  long  ?  My 
rooms  are  Nos.  20  and  22.  Come  directly  to  them. 
You  will  always  find  me  there  between  nine  and 
twelve,  unless  I  am  here  or  at  Emily's.  I  am  not 
half  talked  out." 


PIIEMIE\S  TEMPTATION.  169 

Olive  was  slightly  disconcerted  in  rehearsing  this 
one  of  their  confabulations  to  her  husband,  to  find 
how  indifferent  was  her  recollection  of  what  Pheraie 
had  related  concerning  herself.  She  had  arrived  the 
preceding  evening,  and  was  staying,  for  the  present, 
at  the  Lacroix,  Nos.  20  and  22.  Mr.  Hart  was  well 
and  busy,  and  might  be  in  at  luncheon-time,  therefore 
she  must  return  to  the  hotel,  malgre  t\iG  temptation 
of  the  scallop,  and  Joe's  company,  and  the  baby's,  to 
whom  "  she  took  wonderfully,"  the  mother  related. 

"  That  was  not  surprising,"  said  Joe,  who  had  the 
blessed  infant  upon  his  knees,  trotting  him  gently 
over  the  boundaries  dividing  the  waking  from  the 
sleeping  world. 

"Of  course  not, but  Phemie  isn't  given  to  extrava 
ganzas,  and  the  way  she  looked  at  and  handled  him 
really  gratified  me." 

"  How  is  she  looking?" 

"  Very  well.  Handsomer  than  ever.  But  she  has 
a  more  settled  air  about  her,  and  there  is  a  little  dif 
ference  in  her  manner  of  talking.  She  speaks  lower 
and  in  a  kind  of  'even-on'  way,  you  understand? 
She  isn't  so  bright  and  lively  in  her  words  and  her 
way  of  bringing  them  out  as  she  was  when  a  girl. 
You  used  to  think  her  sharp,  and  she  was  sometimes 
awfully  satirical.  It  was  her  great  fault.  I  am  glad 
she  has  corrected  it.  One  thing  I  didn't  like  alto 
gether,  she  has  lightened  her  mourning  more  than 
Em  and  I  have.  Her  hat  was  shirred  black  silk  with 
out  a  speck  of  crape  about  it,  and  she  had  on  white 
under-sleeves  and  collar.  I  had  not  thought  she 
8 


170  PHEMIE'S  TEMPTATION. 

would  be  in  a  hurry  to  lay  off  mourning  for  poor 
Charlotte.  They  were  so  fond  of  one  another.  I  do 
hope  and  pray  that  Phemie  may  not  be  growing  into 
a  heartless  woman  of  the  world  ! " 

Mrs.  Hart's  luncheon  and  dinner  toilets  were  utter 
ly  devoid  of  the  insignia  of  woe.  Mr.  Hart  did  not 
make  his  appearance  at  the  former  meal,  and  his  wife 
exchanged  the  brown  silk 'she  had  worn  then  for  one 
more  costly  and  showy  as  the  evening  drew  on.  The 
tint  was  that  of  a  deeply- glowing  ruby,  the  cut  and 
finish  were  Parisian,  and  her  ornaments  were  dia 
monds.  After  many  trials  of  the  coiffeur's  skill,  she 
had  failed  to  discover  a  method  of  dressing  her  abun 
dant  hair  that  became  her  as  did  the  old  sweep  from 
left  to  right  across  her  broad  forehead.  It  was  a 
trifle  outre,  her  husband  complained,  but  he  acknowl 
edged  that  it  looked  well  on  her,  that  she  was  not 
herself  in  appearance  without  the  banded  crown. 
Completing  her  costume  by  throwing  about  her  su 
perb  shoulders  a  point-lace  shawl,  she  took  from  a 
drawer  of  her  dressing-cabinet  a  book  and  a  letter — a 
sealed  envelope — and  passed  into  the  adjacent  parlor 
to  await  her  husband's  coming.  She  was  restless 
and  fluttered  by  anxiety  or  expectancy,  as  was  mani 
fested  by  her  laying  the  book  and  envelope,  first  upon 
the  mantel,  then  on  the  table  in  the  downward  glare  of 
the  chandelier,  next  on  the  piano  at  the  back  of  the 
apartment,  and  finally  shutting  up  both  in  her  writ 
ing  desk,  which  she  locked  with  a  golden  key  sus 
pended  to  her  watch-chain.  This  disposed  of,  she  was 
no  more  tranquil  in  feature  or  movement.  She  roam- 


PREMIERS  TEMPTATION.  171 

ed  from  window  to  window,  ran  her  fingers  lightly 
over  the  keys  of  the  piano-forte,  picked  up  a  book 
as  she  paused  by  the  centre-table  and  turned  the 
leaves  abstractedly,  and,  standing  upon  the  rug,  the 
rich  wine-color  of  her  dress  ruddying  the  polished 
marble  of  the  mantel,  interlaced  her  fingers  nervous 
ly  and  gazed  down  into  the  fire,  rapt  in  deep  or  per 
plexing  thought. 

"If  he  should  disapprove  after  all!  And  yet — 
how  can  he?  It  was  a  great  venture  for  me.  It 
seems  to  my  unpractised  eyes  a  great  victory.  It 
will  be  but  an  incident,  and  not  an  important  one  in 
his  wider  experience  of  literary  experiments  and  suc 
cesses.  But  he  must  be  gratified !  He  will  accord 
me  sympathy  and  approbation.  Dear  Miss  Darcy ! 
Her  congratulations  gave  me  the  faint  foretaste  of 
the  reward  I  shall  know  in  his  praises  !  " 

The  agitated  murmur  was  hushed  long  before  he 
came.  It  was  fifteen  minutes  past  the  dinner  hour 
when  he  appeared.  He  was  not  looking  better  for  his 
year  of  travel.  His  complexion  was  less  clear,  his 
eye  less  pleasant,  and  to-night  there  was  a  jaded 
frown  on  his  face  that  added  years,  not  months,  to 
his  apparent  age. 

"  Why  did  you  wait  for  me  ?  "  he  asked,  as  his 
wife  received  his  hasty  kiss.  "  I  have  been  driven  like 
a  dog  all  day.  You  didn't  expect  me  to  luncheon, 
of  course.  I  told  you  I  should  not  be  able  to  come." 

"  I  am  sorry  you  have  had  a  fatiguing  day ! " 
Phemie's  manner  was  unruffled  now,  her  tone  studi 
ously  gentle.  "  Can  I  help  you  dress  ?  " 


172  PHEMIE'S  TEMPTATION. 

"  If  you  are  in  a  hurry,  you  had  better  go  down 
without  me.  Don't  stay  here  on  my  account,  I  beg. 
It  drives  me  crazy  to  know  you  are  waiting  for  me  !  " 

"  I  am  in  no  haste  whatever.  We  can  get  our 
dinner  as  comfortably  half  an  hour  hence  as  now.  I 
prefer  entering  the  dining-room  after  the  rush  of 
hungry  guests  is  over." 

"  You  say  that  because  I  am  late,"  rejoined  the 
husband,  from  the  threshold  of  the  bedroom.  "I 
am  obliged  to  you  for  your  considerate  ingenuity,  but 
I  do  not  acknowledge  the  need  of  apologies  for  my 
tardiness.  I  came  as  soon  as  I  could,  and,  as  I  have 
had  occasion  to  remark  several  times  before,  I  will 
not  be  schooled  like  a  child  ;  be  called  to  account  for 
my  movements  by  you  or  any  one  else." 

Pheinie  had  seated  herself  by  the  table  facing  the 
grate.  Her  eyes  did  not  glisten  nor  her  cheek  pale 
at  this  pettish  ebullition  of  her  lord's  uncertain  tem 
per.  He  rarely  threw  her  oft'  her  guard  after  a 
glance  at  his  countenance  had  apprised  her  that  fitful 
weather  might  be  apprehended.  Something  had 
crossed  him  to-day,  and  he  was  tired  and  hungry. 
She  had  not  lived  with  him  eleven  months  and  not 
learned  how  sufficient  was  any  one  of  these  causes  to 
disturb  his  equanimity.  She  had  not  learned,  how 
ever,  that  while  the  humor  possessed  him,  her  com 
posure  was  fuel  to  the  kindling  flame,  and  that  his 
sensations  in  reviewing  his  unquiet  turns  would  have 
been  more  agreeable,  or  less  unpleasant,  had  he  suc 
ceeded  in  striking  from  the  flint  of  her  temper  an 
answerfng  spark. 


PHEHIE'S  TEMPTATION.  173 

His  bath  and  toilet  had  begun  the  work  of  renova 
tion  upon  the  inner  man  also  when  he  rejoined  her. 
She  laid  down  the  book  she  had  caught  up  at  hap 
hazard  that  she  might  not  be  accused  of  sulky  mop 
ing,  and  looked  up  with  a  smile  at  his  approach. 

"  I  know  you  are  worn  out  waiting  for  me,  my 
dear,"  he  said,  mollified  to  patronage  by  the  amelio 
rating  influences  just  named  ;  "  but  you  must  not  lose 
sight,  hereafter,  of  the  fact  that  our  holiday  is  over ; 
I  cannot  be  your  shadow  here  as  when  we  were 
abroad.  Now,  shall  we  go  down  ? " 

He  was  in  a  sunny  mood  by  the  time  dinner  was 
over.  He  was  not,  strictly  speaking,  effeminate,  but 
he  loved  the  good  things  of  life — cheering  wines, 
delicate  and  savory  viands,  handsome  rooms,  warm 
and  light  in  winter,  shaded  to  coolness  in  summer. 
A  fine  cigar  or  a  chibouque  of  Turkish  tobacco  was 
welcome  to  his  judicious  palate  and  olfactories,  and 
gently  soothing  to  his  soul.  He  liked  sweet  music, 
the  sound  of  a  well-modulated  feminine  voice,  and  he 
was  very  proud  of  his  wife.  Once  back  in  their  par 
lor,  he  held  her  off  at  arm's  length,  that  he  might 
feast  his  eyes,  and  told  her  how  surpassingly  beauti 
ful  she  was. 

"  It  would  be  too  bad  were  all  this  magnificence 
wasted  upon  me,"  he  said,  gayly.  "  I  should  not  be 
surprised  if  Mallory  were  to  look  in.  by  and  by.  He 
hinted  at  some  such  design.  I  shall  be  most  happy 
to  introduce  you  to  him.  His  wife  is  a  mere  parcel 
of  faded  affectations,  done  up  like  a  gaudy  fashion- 
plate,  when  compared  to  you.  You  get  handsomer 


174  PHEMI&S  TEMPTATION. 

every  day,  and,  by  Jove  !  I  believe  you  know  it,  you 
vixen  !  I  ain  a  fool  to  please  you  by  telling  you  of  it !  " 
pinching  her  cheek. 

"Indeed,  I  never  cared  for  my  good  looks,  Robert, 
except  as  they  make  you  love  me  better  and  give  you 
pleasure.  I  am  glad  you  like  me  as  I  am  to-night, 
for  I  have  a  confession  to  make,  and  I  want  to  bribe 
you  to  indulgent  judgment.  Sit  down,  and  let  me 
fill  and  light  your  pet  meerschaum." 

The  day  had  been,  and  not  long  before  her  marriage, 
when  the  smell  of  tobacco  was  odious  to  her,  but  she 
had  conquered  the  repugnance,  because  he  was  a 
true  lover  of  the  weed.  She  produced  the  favorite 
pipe  from  its  case,  filled  it  and  gave  the  amber  stern 
into  his  hand,  then  kindled  an  allumette  at  the  chan 
delier,  he  watching,  the  while,  the  effect  of  the  vivid 
falling  light  upon  her  upraised  face,  the  graceful 
curve  of  her  arm,  from  which  the  lace  sleeve  had 
slipped  aside  as  she  lifted  it,  and  the  harmony  of  her 
striking  attire  with  her  brunette  beauty.  It  was  a 
comfortable  thing  to  have  a  picture  like  that  before 
his  eyes  every  evening,  and  to  know  that  it  was  his — 
all  his — and  his  alone.  He  had  his  mannerisms,  like 
the  rest  of  the  human  race,  and  oi\e  of  these  was  to 
talk  largely  of  his  love  for  the  aesthetic.  He  said  to 
himself,  now,  that  he  had  proved  his  taste  in  this  re 
gard  triumphantly  in  his  selection  of  a  wife.  He 
wished  a  dozen  of  the  best  judges  of  anatomy,  contour, 
and  coloring  in  town  were  likely  to  drop  in  during 
the  evening  instead  of  Mallory,  who  had  not  a  par 
ticle  of  taste  for  pictures  and  statuary. 


PHEMIE'S  TEMPTATION.  175 

Pheraie  lighted  his  meerschaum,  was  repaid  for  the 
service  by  a  kiss  flavored  with  tobacco-smoke,  and 
seated  herself  beside  her  sultan. 

"  You  will  hear  me  through  before  pronouncing  the 
verdict,  however  unpromising  the  preamble  may  be  ? " 
she  stipulated,  and  Robert  engaged,  between  two 
whiffs  of  Latakia,  to  do  as  she  wished. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

T  the  time  of  our  marriage,"  began  Phemie, 
"you  insisted  upon  bearing  the  sole  expense 
of  Albert's  education  at  the  Institute  for  the 
Blind,  and  carried  your  point  in  spite  of  my 
remonstrances." 
"  There  was  no  one~  else  to  pay  the  boy's  way,  my 
child,"  interrupted  the  husband,  a  soupgon  of  con 
tempt  touching  his  patronizing  indulgence.  "  Your 
estimable  brothers-in-law  are  not  given  to  devising 
liberal  things,  and  I  knew  it  would  distress  you  great 
ly  if  your  brother  were  withdrawn  from  school.  I 
could  not  do  less  than  to  offer  to  maintain  him  there. 
I  have  never  regretted  the  action.  I  grudge  you,  no 
gratification  that  money  can  procure." 

"  I  know  it  well — too  well !  "  said  Phemie,  hastily. 
"You  are  the  soul  of  generosity.  But  it  did  not 
seem  just  to  me  that  you  should  be  burdened  with 
the  support  of  one  not  of  your  blood  or  kind,  and 
Albert  shared  my  feeling  to  the  utmost.  Before  I 
parted  from  him,  I  assured  him  that  his  debt  should 
be  to  me,  and  not  to  you.  A  sister  has  the  right  to 


PHEMIKS  TEMPTATION.  177 

assist  a  brother  until  he  can  take  care  of  himself. 
Through  a  friend,  I  secured  the  place  of  foreign  corre 
spondent  to  the  Weekly  Post,  of  this  city,  and  while 
abroad  I  sent  home  letters  for  this  with  tolerable 
regularity.  They  were  nothing  in  themselves— were 
gossiping  notes  of  what  I  saw  and  heard  in  those 
strange  countries,  but  they  met  with  favor  on  this 
side  of  the  water,  and  I  was  paid  well  for  them.  The 
money  was  given  to  a  person  whom  I  had  empowered 
to  receive  it,  and  appropriated  to  the  payment  of  Al 
bert's  board  and  tuition  bills.  The  sum  you  left  in 
bank  for  that  purpose  lies  there  still,  untouched. 
Don't  speak  yet,  Robert !  Let  me  tell  you  why  I 
acted  thus.  I  have  accepted  all  you  have  done  for 
me  personally,  without  objection  or  diffidence.  But 
I  had  said  to  you  when  you  asked  me  to  marry  you, 
that  my  relatives  should  never  be  clogs  upon  you. 
Albert  is  sensitive — foolishly  proud,  perhaps — but  I 
was  unwilling  to  add  to  the  hardships  of  his  condition 
the  oppressive  sense  of  obligation  to  one  upon  wThom 
lie  had  no  legal  claim.  You  are  liberal  to  a  fault, 
and  appreciating  this  as  we  both  do,  it  seemed  the 
less  expedient  that  we  should  avail  ourselves  of  your 
noble  offer.  You  are  as  truly  Albert's  benefactor  as 
if  he  had  lived  upon  your  bounty  for  the  year  which 
is  past,  and  you  have  enjoyed  the  blessing  of  giving 
— the  sweet  consciousness  that  you  had  spared  from 
your  abundance  the  means  to  succor  the  needy.  My 
plan  has,  all  along,  been  this — to  confess  what  I  had 
done,  to  you,  on  our  return,  and  propose  myself  as 
your  almoner  in  the  work  of  distributing  the  money 
8* 


178  PREMIERS  TEMPTATION. 

intended  for  my  brother  among  several  needy  families 
of  which  I  have  knowledge — whom  I  used  to  aid  in 
such  ways  as  my  limited  means  would  allow.  I  do 
not  insult  or  pain  you,  by  refunding  the  amount.  I 
only  divert  it  into  other  channels  of  benevolence. 

"  Please  do  not  answer  me  yet !  "  with  the  pretty, 
appealing  gesture  she  had  used  before  to  ward  off  the 
storm  threatened  by  the  lowering  brow  and  parting 
lips.  "You  promised  to  hear  me  through.  These 
letters  were  dashed  off  at  odd  moments,  and  I  still 
had  a  superabundance  of  leisure  upon  my  hands  in 
the  lazy,  pleasant  life  we  led  abroad.  One  day  it  oc 
curred  to  me  to  write  a  book.  There  was  much  in 
rny  mind  and  heart  that  I  wanted  to  say.  I  longed 
to  do  my  full  work  in  the  world,  instead  of  living  for 
my  selfish  gratification.  If  GOD  had  given  me 
strength,  it  seemed  to  me  that  I  should  help  the  weak. 
If  courage,  I  ought  to  cheer  the  desponding.  If 
knowledge  were  mine,  it  should  be  shared  with  those 
who  were  now  ignorant.  Sometimes,  when  I  was 
alone  and  thoughtful,  the  strong  necessity  of  expres 
sion  bore  upon  me  with  terrible  weight.  I  dared  not 
keep  silence.  The  yearning  over  the  weary-hearted, 
the  poor  in  spirit,  the  afflicted  of  my  kind,  was  to  me 
like  the  inspiration  of  my  guardian  angel.  I  wrote 
it  all  down — or  all  that  I  could  set  down  in  written 
words — and  sent  it,  through  a  friend,  to  Mr.  Mallory. 
He  had  no  intimation  that  I  was  the  author.  He 
does  not  suspect  it  yet,  but  his  reader  approved  of  the 
manuscript,  and  the  book  was  published  two  months 
ago.  He  wrote  to  you  about  it,  and  the  mystery  at- 


P1IEMI&S  TEMPTATION.  179 

tending  the  authorship.  The-critics  have  dealt  very 
leniently  with  it,  and  the  reading  public  take  to  it 
kindly.  Here  it  is !  "  She  brought  it  forward,  and 
bent  her  knee  in  playful  homage,  as  she  presented  it. 
"  I  ordered  that  one  copy  should  be  bound  in  your  fa 
vorite  style,  as  a  gift  to  you — my  husband  !  " 

She  stood  before  him,  with  wistful  eyes  and  palpi 
tating  heart,  while  he  unclosed  the  elegant  volume. 
The  sealed  envelope  dropped  from  between  the  leaves, 
and  several  slips  of  printed  paper,  apparently  clipped 
from  newspapers.  He  opened  the  former  first.  It 
contained  four  checks,  he  recollected  to  have  given 
his  wife  at  different  times,  to  be  forwarded  to  Mr. 
Man  dell,  or  whomsoever  she  might  select  as  the 
fittest  person  to  receive  and  pay  Albert's  quarterly 
bills. 

An  angry  flash  went  over  his  countenance,  as  he 
recognized  them.  He  examined  each  to  assure  him 
self  that  it  was  genuine  ;  laid  them  evenly  together, 
tore  the  four  through  the  middle  at  one  spasm  of 
finger-fury,  and  tossed  the  fragments  into  the  grate. 
Phemie  uttered  an  exclamation,  as  of  one  who  had 
been  struck  sharply  across  the  face ;  put  her  hands 
before  her  eyes  and  sat  down,  without  another  sound, 
her  fingers  still  pressed  hard  upon  her  lids  to  drive 
back  the  tears,  or  shut  out  the  sight  of  his  white, 
mute  wrath.  She  heard  the  rustle  of  the  printed 
extracts,  as  he  unfolded  them.  They  were  critical 
notices  of  her  work,  from  papers  for  which  she  Ipiew 
he  had  great  respect,  all  complimentary  of  the  style," 
aim,  and  plot -of  the  anonymous  volume,  and  pro- 


180  PHEMIE' S  TEMPTATION. 

phetic  of  a  brilliant  and  useful  career  to  the  author. 
Mr.  Hart  glanced  them  over,  laying  each  aside  as  he 
finished  it,  with  very  much  the  same  action  as  that 
which  had  committed  the  checks  to  the  flames. 

"  You  would  like  to  keep  these,  I  suppose,"  he 
said,  dryly,  when  the  last  was  huddled  with  the 
others  into  a  little  heap,  and  pushed  to  the  opposite 
side  of  the  centre-table.  "If  you  were  familiar  as  I 
am  with  the  machinery  of  critic-making,  you  might 
not  treasure  them  so  carefully.  Mallory  was  talking 
to  me  about  this  book  to-day.  He  has  expended  a 
ridiculously  large  sum  in  advertising,  which  includes 
puffing.  We  have  a  first-class  puffer  connected  with 
our  establishment.  These  were  undoubtedly  paid 
for  by  the  firm  at  so  much  per  line." 

He  waited  for  an  answer,  but  none  came.  Phemie 
sat,  still  and  silent,  looking  into  the  fire,  where  the 
charred  papers  were  changing  into  gray  gossamer 
the  inky  characters  still  blackly  distinct  upon  them. 
Mr.  Hart  collected  his  thoughts  and  words  while 
relighting  the  pipe  he  had  let  go  out  in  listening  to 
his  wife's  story. 

"  I  will  not  do  your  understanding  injustice  by 
imagining  for  a  moment,  Phemie,  that  you  hoped  to 
give  me  pleasure  by  the  course  you  have  pursued 
with  reference  to  Albert,  and  in  your  literary  enter 
prise.  You  must  have  foreseen,  from  the  beginning 
of  your  clandestine  operations,  that  the  knowledge  of 
them  could  bring  me  nothing  but  pain  and  mortifica 
tion.  They  are  fresh  and  more  decided  developments 
of  your  wilful  purpose  to  live  and  act  -independently 


PUEMIE'S  TEMPTATION.  181 

of  me — to  assert  this  independence,  and,  in  time, 
your  sovereignty.  Without  suspecting  what  was 
your  occupation  at  those  hours  which  I  was  compelled 
to  pass  out  of  your  society — certainly  with  no  mis 
givings  that  you  were  abusing  the  confidence  I  re 
posed  in  you  by  preparing  a  plan  for  my  discomfit 
ure,  I  have  yet  felt,  for  many  months,  that  our  lives 
were  being  sundered,  instead  of  united,  by  every 
day  we  lived  together.  Your  interests,  views,  sympa 
thies,  tastes — have  become  more  and  more  unlike 
mine  from  the  day  of  our  marriage  until  now.  In 
the  pride  of  intellect,  which  is  your  besetting  sin, 
you  have  learned  to  look  down  upon  your  husband  as 
a  being  of  a  lower  sphere ;  have  panted  for  distinction 
and  popular  applause ;  have,  according  to  your  own 
confession,  found  the  course  of  your  married  life  tame 
and  insipid  ;  its  duties  and  enjoyments  inadequate  to 
fill  the  measure  of  your  cravings — 'your  spirit-needs,' 
I  believe  that  is  the  accepted  phrase.  Most  women 
ask  no  happier  and  higher  lot  than  to  make  their 
homes  happy  to  the  men  of  their  choice ;  find  their 
mission  in  the  '  queendom  of  a  simple  wife.'  You 
once  dreamed,  or  told  me  you  dreamed  that  it  would 
be  the  same  with  you.  There  was  no  talk  about  the 
'  strong  necessity '  of  a  wider  field  of  action  then  !  " 

The  pipe  needed  very  hard  puffing  to  rekindle  it, 
just  here.  He  resumed,  when  this  was  achieved: 

"  That  you  are  dissatisfied  and  ambitious  is  not  my 
fault.  I  have  nothing  with  which  to  charge  myself 
in  the  failure  of  your  expectations.  I  say  it  in  no 
vainglorious  spirit,  but  in  sheer  self-justification 


182  PIIEXIE'S  TEMPTATION. 

against  the  accusations  implied  by  your  discontent ; 
but  not  many  husbands  have  striven  more  zealously 
and  constantly  than  I  to  secure  the  happiness  of  a 
wife.  I  have  given  you  foreign  travel ;  access  to 
works  of  art  you  had  never  dared  hope  to  see  ;  money 
and  refined  society  in  place  of  a  life  of  toil  and  isola 
tion  from  all  elevating  influences.  I  required  in  re 
turn  only  your  affection  and  your  contentment  with 
the  destiny  I  had  brought  you.  If  your  love  equalled 
mine  for  you,  the  longings  you  describe  would  never 
have  beset  you.  If  you  had  rightly  understood  and 
valued  my  devotion,  you  would  not  have  insulted  me 
by  hurling  back  upon  me  my  well-meant  gift  to  your 
brother,  with  the  arrogant  declaration  that  you  could 
provide  for  those  of  your  own  blood,  and  asked  no 
favors  at  the  hands  of  an  alien." 

"  Oh,  Robert !  "  Phemie  made  an  impetuous  move 
ment  toward  him. 

He  stopped  her  by  a  magisterial  wave  of  the  hand. 
"  May  I  ask  the  same  degree  of  indulgence  from  you 
that  you  demanded  from  me  while  you  made  your 
address  ?  I  have  not  your  command  of  language,  but 
I  will  try  to  make  myself  intelligible.  You  decline, 
as  does  your  brother,  your  pupil  and  confidant,  to  re 
ceive  pecuniary  assistance  from  your  husband.  You 
let  me  go  on,  pleasing  myself  with  the  notion  that  I 
have  benefited  him  and  made  him  happy  by  so  doing 
for  twelve  months,  you,  meanwhile,  laughing  in  your 
sleeve  at  the  idiotic  complacency  of  your  dupe.  Your 
accredited  agent  in  the  pious  fraud  practised  upon 
the  husband  who  loved  and  trusted  you,  was,  doubt- 


PREMIERS  TEMPTATION.  183 

less,  your  bosom  friend  and  trainer,  Miss  Darcy. 
The  project  reveals  the  parentage  at  the  first  blush." 

Phemie  looked  up  as  if  to  speak,  but  recollected 
the  injunction  to  silence. 

"  I  have  made  no  secret  to  you  of  my  opinion  of 
that  woman.  I  may  observe  here,  parenthetically, 
that  from  you  I  have  had  no  reserves.  I  have  repeated 
to  you  the  glaring  insult  she  offered  me  in  exchange 
for  my  confidence  when  I  told  her  of  my  love  for  you. 
She  taunted  me  with  my  inferiority  to  you,  and 
warned  me  that  this  would  become  more  manifest 
the  longer  we  lived  together — that  simple  love,  the 
offering  up  of  a  whole  nature  and  existence  to  your 
service,  would  not  content  your  aspiring  spirit.  Tell 
her  from  me,  as  I  doubt  not  you  have  already  done 
for  yourself  in  action,  if  not  in  words,  that  she  was 
a  true  prophetess ;  that  the  seed  she  scattered  in 
your  mind  fell  upon  good  soil  and  bids  fair  to  bring 
forth  fruit  to  her  delight,  to  your  glory,  and  my  con 
fusion.  In  this  book  you  have  ventilated  the  princi 
ples  with  which  she  has  indoctrinated  you.  Mallory 
tells  me  it  has  taken  tremendously  with  strong-minded 
females  and  radicals,  and  your  editorial  critics  mean 
the  same  thing  when  they  laud  your  '  enlarged  views,' 
your  '  breadth  and  vigor  of  thought,'  and  your  '  earn 
est  philanthropy.'  You  have  written  a  readable  book 
— one  that  will  increase  the  amount  of  your  private 
hoard  and  enable  you  to  befriend  as  many  more  rela 
tions  as  you  please  to  help.  But  you  have  unsexed 
yourself,  and  built  a  wall  of  distrust  between  yourself 
and  me.  Hereafter — or  so  soon  as  the  real  name  of 


184  PIIEXI&S  TEMPTATION. 

the  now  anonymous  novelist  is  known — we  shall  be 
enrolled  before  the  public  as  '  Mrs.  Hart  and  husband? 
The  title  sounds  agreeably  in  your  ears,  I  suppose. 
It  is  a  matter  of  no  consequence  how  it  impresses  me. 
I  should  forget  my  loss  of  manliness,  as  the  husbands 
of  other  distinguished  Mesdames  Jelly  by  have  to  do, 
while  their  spouses  honor  them  by  living  under  the 
same  roof  with  them — by  sunning  myself  in  the  re 
flection  of  your  fame." 

In  his  exasperation  at  the  picture  he  had  drawn 
he  resigned  his  pipe  altogether  and  stood  up,  rearing 
his  tine  figure  to  its  full  height,  stamping  the  left  boot- 
heel,  then  the  right,  upon  the  velvet  rug,  and  pluck 
ing,  in  an  irritated  way,  at  his  beard,  assertive  of  phy 
sical  manliness  if  his  intellectual  supremacy  were 
menaced  by  his  subordinate's  audacity. 

Still  Phemie  was  mute,  and  did  not  alter  her  posi 
tion.  There  were  dreary  depths  in  her  brown  eyes 
he  did  not  see,  and  which  he  could  not  have  fathomed 
if  he  had.  If  he  had  looked  closely  he  would  have 
noted  the  quiver  of  the  nostril  and  the  squarer  out 
line  of  the  lower  jaw,  within  which  the  locked  teeth 
kept  the  tongue  a  prisoner  ;  but  he  thought  her  cal 
lous  or  defiant.  A  turn  through  the  room  brought 
him  back  to  the  hearth-rug,  where  he  assumed  ano 
ther  eminently  masculine  attitude,  planting  himself 
in  the  centre,  his  back  to  the  fire,  his  hands  crossed 
under  his  coat-skirts,  and  his  legs  well  apart. 

11 1  know  more  of  literary  women  than  you  do.  It 
is  politic  for  a  man  in  my  business  to  treat  them  with 
a  certain  degree  of  respect  and  politeness.  But  I 


PREMIERS  TEMPTATION.  185 

detest  the  class.  They  are  the  most  arrant  and  ob 
trusive  set  of  egotists  under  heaven.  They  write 
their  own  lives  over  and  over,  until  the  public  taste 
revolts,  and  then  they  make  capital  of  their  friends. 
The  best  of  them  are  wretched  copyists — and  the  best 
are  few  in  number.  Their  loves,  their  hates,  their 
griefs,  are  so  much  available  capital  to  be  served  up 
in  strongly  italteized  manuscript  at  whatever  they 
can  get  per  page.  They  are  mercenary  to  a  proverb 
— grasping  and  grinding,  with  all  their  talk  of  doing 
good,  helping  the  weak  and  the  like  bosh.  They 
write  for  money  !  money  !  and  the  only  way  to  quench 
their  genius  is  not  to  pay  them.  The  '  strong  neces 
sity  of  expression  '  deserts  them  forthwith  when  said 
expression  brings  no  return  in  current  bank-notes." 

He  stamped  again,  shaking  each  foot  as  if  his  knees 
had  suddenly  grown  too  big  for  his  pantaloons. 

Phemie  raised  her  eyes  after  a  minute. 

"  May  I  speak  now  ? " 

"  Don't  affect  any  slavish  airs,  Phemie  !  I  have 
not  tried  to  gag  you  ! "  he  said,  roughly,  nettled  by 
the  calm  courtesy  of  the  request. 

She  had  him  at  a  disadvantage  already. 

"With  regard  to  the  provision  for  my  brother's 
tuition,  I  can  only  reiterate  my  assertion  that  I  was 
actuated  by  no  unworthy  motives  in  undertaking  the 
task.  Excepting  Albert  and  myself, -my  brother-in- 
law,  Mr.  Bonney,  is  the  only  person  who  knows  that 
your  design  was  not  carried  into  effect.  Mr.  Bonney 
is  the  friend  of  whom  I  spoke  as  authorized  by  me  to 
receive  and  pay  out  the  proceeds  of  my  contributions 


186  PHEMIE'S  TEMPTATION. 

to  the  Post.  He  has  never  spoken  of  it,  even  to  his 
wife." 

"  This  accomplished  gentleman  was  hardly  the 
sponsor  of  your  published  volume,  I  take  it,"  sneered 
Robert.  "  If  he  was,  the  negotiations  must  have 
been  of  an  original  character." 

"  He  was  not.  I  transmitted  the  MS.  to  Miss 
Darcy  because  I  had  no  other  literacy  acquaintance 
whom  I  could  trouble  with  it.  She  knew  it  was  in 
tended  as  an  agreeable  surprise  to  you.  She  shall 
never  hear  through  me  that  I  have  been  disappointed 
in  my  hope.  If  I  had  surmised  that  you  would  be 
displeased  with  me  for  attempting  authorship,  I  would 
never  have  penned  a  line.  You  encouraged  me  to 
study  and  write  before  our  marriage  "- 

"  As  a  means  of  procuring  your  livelihood !  "  he 
interrupted.  "As  ray  wife,  you  are  raised  above  such 
necessity." 

Phemie  did  not  retort  upon  him  with  his  invective 
against  those  who  rode  Pegasus  for  the  plate  he 
might  win.  She  bent  her  head,  instead,  with  proud 
humility,  in  replying. 

"  I  am — and  I  thank  you  for  it !  I  have  no  am 
bition  to  acquire  wealth,  or  even  a  moderate  com 
petence  by  my  own  labor.  I  have  stated  my  reasons 
for  writing.  Not  the  least  incentive  that  urged  me 
to  the  work  was  the  anticipation  of  your  approval. 
You  had  often  expressed  your  pride  in  my  quickness 
of  intellect,  and  I  longed  to  justify  it.  I  sincerely 
believed  that  whatever  applause  I  might  win  from 
competent  judges  of  such  productions  would  be  as 


PHEMIE'S  TEMPTATION.  187 

much  and  more  to  you  than  to  me.  I  could  not  see 
how  it  could  be  otherwise." 

"  Thank  you  !  "  with  an  ironical  bow,  "  I  do  not 
care  to  soar  upon  borrowed  pinions — least  of  all,  when 
my  wife  is  the  lender." 

"  I  can  say  no  more  ! "  said  Phemie,  in  patient 
despair.  "  I  have  made  a  great  mistake.  If  I  could 
correct  it — undo*what  I  have  done — unsay  what  I 
have  said,  I  would  leave  you  no  room  for  complaint." 

"  I  have  not  complained.  I  do  not  seek  to  abridge 
your  liberty.  If  you  are  emulous  of  martyrdom, 
you  will  not  receive  it  from  me.  The  fault  is  not  in 
what  you  have  done,  but  in  the  feeling  that  prompted 
the  act.  It  would  be  no  reparation  to  me  were  you 
to  hold  your  hands  in  enforced  idleness,  while  your 
spirit  chafed  at  the  bonds  laid  upon  you  by  my 
wishes.  I  have  failed  utterly  and  ignominiously  in 
filling  the  desires  of  your  heart  and  mind.  Miss 
Darcy  said  it  would  be  so — that  she  knew  you  better 
than  I  did.  She  spoke  sound  and  sober  truth  for 
once.  I  wish  I  had  believed  her  then  !  " 

"  Robert !  are  you  sorry  that  you  married  me  ? " 

"  That  question  is  the  prompting  of  your  own  mis 
givings,  not  a  legitimate  inference  from  anything  I 
have  said,"  returned  the  ill-used  husband,  majesti 
cally.  "  I  submit  it  to  your  consciousness  whether  I 
have  ever  come  so  far  short  of  my  duty  as  to  justify 
you  in  asking  it." 

"  I  do  not  in  the  least  comprehend  how  we  reached 
this  point,"  said  Phemie,  in  piteous  bewilderment. 
"I  have  displeased  and  wounded  you,  and  I  would 


M8  PREMIERS  TEMPTATION.      . 

make  amends.  Cannot  I  withdraw  this  book  from 
circulation  ? "  eying  it  with  a  look  of  abhorrence. 
"  It  shall  never  be  known  that  I  wrote  it,  come  what 
may  ;  but  I  would  have  it  die  out  of  the  public  mind 
entirely." 

"  There  it  is !  Trust  a  woman  to  rush  to  extremes 
when  her  slightest  wish  is  thwarted !  Tell  her  she  is 
a  little  lower  than  the  angels,  and  she  perversely  de 
clares  she  is  worse  than  the  devils  !  Who  said  any 
thing  about  suppressing  the  work  ?  It  is  readable, 
according  to  the  critics,  and  is  selling  tolerably  well. 
You  took  sweet  delight,  found  divine  comfort  in  the 
miseries  of  your  association  with  an  uncongenial 
partner  in  writing  it.  Keep  your  bantling !  It  is 
nothing  to  me.  If  you  write  no  more,  it  will  be  an 
incessant  reproach  to  my  cruelty — a  fine  text  for 
Miss  Darcy  in  her  next  lecture  upon  woman's  wrongs. 
You  have  chosen  your  path ;  I  shall  not  seek  to  di 
vert  your  feet  from  it." 

At  this  juncture  of  the  dialogue  a  rap  was  heard 
at  the  door,  and  Phemie  escaped  to  her  chamber,  for 
getting  the  hapless  gift-volume  left  lying  upon  the 
table.  She  heard  the  hearty  salutation  exchanged  in 
the  other  room,  and,  foreseeing  that  she  would  pre 
sently  be  summoned  to  appear,  had  instant  recourse 
to  her  usual  expedient  for  checking  hysterical  emotion 
— to  wit — bathing  her  face,  eyes,  temples,  and  wrists 
freely  in  cold  water.  She  had  hardly  dried  the  evi 
dences  of  the  bath  that  had  served  her  in  lieu  of  that 
prime  resort  of  suffering  feminity — "  a  good  cry  " — 
when  Robert  came  in. 


PIIEMI&S  TEMPTATION.  189 

"  Mallory  is  in  the  parlor,  and  wants  to  see  you. 
Will  you  come  in  ? " 

His  cold,  injured  tone  was  not  inviting,  but  Phe- 
mie's  response  was  ready.  "  With  pleasure !  "  she 
said,  and  followed  him  into  the  prese.nce  of  his  friend. 

"  I  believe  I  had  the  pleasure  of  knowing  Mrs. 
Hart  slightly  in  her  early  youth,"  said  the  suave 
partner,  bowing  over  the  lady's  hand.  "  My  sisters 
remember  you  well  and  affectionately.  Clara  would 
have  accompanied  me  to-night,  had  she  not  been  pre 
vented  by  a  prior  engagement.  Mrs.  Mallory  desired 
me  to  present  her  regrets  that  a  severe  headache  kept 
her  at  home,  when  she  would  gladly  have  been 
among  the  earliest  to  welcome  you  back  to  America." 

Not  one  word  of  which  Euphemia  believed,  as  she 
scanned  his  cunning  eyes  and  bland  mouth,  each  giv 
ing  the  lie  positive  and  direct  to  the  other.  The 
introduction  was  barely  over,  when  there  was  a  fresh 
importation  of  guests — Mr.  and  Mrs.  Bonney.  Phe- 
mie  went  forward  to  greet  them  without  outward 
tokens  of  perturbation,  but  with  a  mind  distraught 
and  a  failing  heart.  Her  relatives  could  not  have 
chosen  a  more  inopportune  season  for  their  visit. 
Her  reception  of  them  was  affectionate,  although  she 
felt  the  import  of  Olive's  start  and  stare  at  sight  of 
her  gay  attire,  and  the  dignified  reproach  she  tried 
to  infuse  into  her  address.  "  Ah,  Phemie  !  I  did  not 
know  you  when  we  came  in." 

With  an  ostentatious  flirt  of  her  mourning  veil,  and 
a  lugubrious  demeanor,  she  passed  the  delinquent  to 
speak  to  her  brother-in-law.  If  Phemie's  transgres- 


190  PHEMIE'S  TEMPTATION. 

sion  was  levity,  Mr.  Hart  should  have  atoned  for  it  by 
his  saturnine  smile  and  frigid  civility.  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Joseph  Bonney  were-  well-enough  people  in  their  walk 
of  life,  but  they  were  the  antipodes  of  fashionable, 
and  Mallory  would  carry  home  to  his  wife  and  sisters, 
who  were  fashionists,  a  truthful  description  of  the 
pair.  By  the  time  it  was  Joe's  turn  to  salute  his 
host,  the  latter  might  have  been  a  galvanized  iron 
statue,  or  anything  else  grim  and  forbidding,  so  in 
sufficient  was  his  courtesy  to  the  demands  of  the  try 
ing  occasion.  They  all  sat  down,  when  reception  and 
introduction  were  through ;  Mr.  Hart,  stately  and 
cross  ;  Joe  abashed  ;  Olive  slowly  recovering  from  the 
slight  put  upon  "  poor,  dear  Charlotte,"  by  Phemie's 
ruby  silk; -Mr.  Mallory  politely  reserved  until  the 
greetings  of  the  kinspeople  should  be  accomplished, 
and  Phemie  desperate. 

"  How  is  the  little  man  to-night  ?"  she  interrogated 
her  sister.  "  He  is  too  young  to  pay  evening  calls,  I 
suppose?" 

"He  is  very  well,  thank  you!"  rejoined  Olive, 
with  extreme  gravity.  "  Or,  I  should  not  be  here," 
accompanied  by  a  glance  intended  to  convey  the  self- 
gratulation, — "  I  know  what  is  due  to  my  family ; 
have  some  remnants  of  affection  for  them — thank 
Heaven ! " 

It  was  not  lost  upon  Phemie,  but  she  turned  to  Joe 
with  undiminished  cordiality.  "  He  is  very  like  you, 
Mr.  Bonney." 

-.  "  What  airs ! "  said  Olive's  retrousse  nose.  "  She 
won't  call  him  '  Joe,'  because  there  are  two  grand 


PHEMIE'S  TEMPTATION.  191 

gentlemen  by.  Thank  Heaven  !  "  (again),  "  I  am  not 
ashamed  of  my  relatives!" 

"  Do  you  think  so  2 "  simpered  Joe,  in  reply  to  his 
sister-in-law. 

Not  being  able,  in  the  rebuking  presence  of  his 
wife,  and  under  the  shadow  of  the  hostly  iceberg,  to 
think  of  anything  else  to  say,  he  looked  like  a  fool. 

In  compassion  to  his  sheepishness,  Phemie  returned 
to  Olive.  "  I  saw  Emily  to-day.  She  is  not  looking 
very  well,  I  think.  I  am  afraid  her  health  is  less 
firm  than  it  used  to  be." 

"Emily  is  very  domestic,"  Olive  stated,  her  eyes 
upon  the  point-lace  shawl.  "  She  never  neglects  her 
home  duties  or  allows  anything  to  take  the  place  of 
her  family  in  her  mind.  Perhaps  she  does  look  a  little 
worn  out.  She  has  never  been  quite  herself  since  poor 
Charlotte's  death.  There  are  some  hearts  " — study 
ing  the  pattern  of  Phemie's  diamond  brooch — "  that 
cherish  the  memory  of  a  friend  longer  than  others." 

Joe  colored  and  looked  down.  Mr.  Hart's  lip 
twitched  contemptuously.  Phemie  appeared  not  to 
feel  the  lash  that  curled  about  her  lace- veiled  shoul 
ders.  Perhaps,  upon  the  principle  that  obtains  in 
regions  infested  by  mosquitoes  and  gad-flies,  where 
the  process  of  acclimation  is  to  be  stung  all  over,  the 
most  impudent  of  the  minute  tormentors  never  pre 
senting  his  bill  where  one  of  his  brethren  has  pre 
viously  settled. 

"  How  cold  it  has  grown  since  morning  !  "  Phe 
mie  essayed  a  general,  and,  she  hoped,  a  perfectly 
safe  topic. 


192  PnEMIE'S  TEMPTATION. 

"  Do  you  think  so  ?  "  answered  the  unappeased 
Olive.  "  Now,  I  was  saying  to  Joe,  as  we  came 
along,  that  the  weather  was  unusually  mild  for  the 
season.  But  we  American  ladies  adapt  our  dress  to 
the  climate.  I  suppose  you  have  thoroughly  adopted 
the  fashions  and  become  accustomed  to  the  air  of 
Paris.  Most  travelled  ladies  can  live  nowhere  else." 

A  gay  exclamation  from  Mr.  Mallory  interrupted 
the  uncomfortable  scene.  "  Proved  !  "  he  cried, 
holding  up  the  presentation  volume  he  had  taken 
from  the  table.  "  This  is  the  copy  which  was  pre 
pared  at  the  request  of  the  author.  I  have  confir 
mation  strong  of  what  my  sister  Clara  has  affirmed 
from  the  first.  In  our  anxiety  to  discover  the  name 
of  the  author  of  the  most  popular  novel  of  the  day, 
we  divided  a  portion  of  the  MS.  after  the  book  was 
issued,  into  separate  sheets,  and  showed  them  to  a 
number  of  friends,  mostly  literati,  hoping  to  identify 
the  Nameless  by  means  of  her  chirography.  My 
sister,  chancing  to  see  one  of  these,  declared  it  to  be 
your  handwriting,  Mrs.  Hart,  and  so  closely  did  it 
correspond  with  that  of  certain  notes,  received  by 
her  in  her  school  days,  that  my  own  suspicions  were 
excited  by  the  circumstance.  I  caused  search  to  be 
made  for  the  MS.  of  a  little  volume — a  compendium 
of  chemistry,  which  we  published  for  you,  two  years 
or  more  since,  but  it  could  not  be  found.  I  sounded 
Hart,  here,  dexterously  upon  the  subject  to-day,  but 
was  soon  convinced  that  he  knew  nothing  of  the  matter 
• — less  even  than  did  I — or  that  he  had  become  a  profi 
cient  in  diplomatic  concealment  under  your  tutelage." 


PREMIERS  TEMPTATION.  193 

His  laughing  exultation  faded  .perceptibly,  as  he 
glanced  from  the  clouded  face  of  the  husband  to  the 
impassive  one  of  the  wife. 

"  I  beg  your  pardon,  if  I  have  made  an  incautious 
revelation,  but  I  supposed  as  there  were  only  friends 
here  " — his  eye  passing  to  the  astounded  Bonneys — 
"  that  I  might  congratulate  you  upon  the  eminent 
success  of  your  work,  and  the  skill  with  which  you 
have  heretofore  maintained  your  incognita.  I  pledge 
myself  for  the  company  present  that  there  shall  be 
no  violation  of  this  in  general  gossip,  or  in  print, 
should  you  object  to  the  disclosure.  It  would  be  a 
grand  card  for  our  house,  though,  Hart — the  story 
that  one  of  our  firm  could  get  up  a  book  like  this." 

"  Hardly  one  of  the  firm,"  replied  the  other,  coolly. 
"  It  is  a  private  venture  of  Mrs.  Hart's.  I  had  no 
idea  that  she  was  infected  with  the  cacoethes  scribendi, 
until  this  evening,  when  she  exhibited  the  proof  in 
Russia  antique,  bevelled  edges  and  cream-tinted 
paper.  I  could  not  have  been  more  amazed  had  she 
chosen  to  appear  in  full  Bloomer  costume." 

Olive  tittered,  and  Joe  opened  his  mouth  with  such 
an  effort,  one  could  have  fancied  that  his  jaws 
creaked.  "  It  is  called  a  fine  thing,  I  believe,"  he 
said,  pointedly,  to  Mr.  Mallory.  "Everybody  who 
has  read  it  speaks  well  of  it.  I  have  never  enjoyed 
a  book  more,  although  I  didn't  know  who  wrote  it. 
I  am  not  much  of  a  reader,  and  no  critic,  but  I  like 
what  goes  to  my  heart  and  makes  me  feel  better  and 
happier.  You  have  done  a  great  deal  of  good, 
Phemie,  and  you  ought  to  be  proud  of  it,  My 


194:  PREMIERS  TEMPTATION. 

thanks  are  worth  as  little,  maybe,  as  my  opinion, 
but  I  do  thank  you  for  the  pleasure  and  profit  I  have 
derived  from  your  work.  I  hope  you  will  live  to 
write  a  hundred  more  as  good  and  interesting." 

There  were  dew  and  fire  in  Phemie's  eyes,  and  the 
faint  tremble  of  a  smile  about  her  mouth  as  she 
bowed  her  gratitude.  "  You  are  kind  to  tell  me  so  ! 
It  is  I  who  should  thank  you." 

While  she  said  it,  a  thought  smote  her  like  a 
stiletto.  "  Has  it  then  come  to  this,  that  Joe  Bonney 
is  my  champion  against  my  husband  ?  " 

Mr.  Mallory  was  acute  enough,  and  sufficiently 
versed  in  his  partner's  weaknesses  to  take  in  the  sit 
uation,  and  enjoyed  it  maliciously.  "  Mr.  Bonney  is 
a  truthful  exponent  of  popular  opinion,"  he  said, 
shedding  his  bland  smile  lavishly  over  Joe.  "  And 
as  for  you,  Hart,  you  are  an  ungrateful  dog  not  to  be 
overjoyed  at  your  wife's  glory.  Genius  is  always 
modest,  but  there  is  no  rule  that  calls  for  shame- 
facedness  on  your  part,  unless  it  be  that  yours  is 
the  natural  diffidence  of  the  moon  when  the  sun  is 
by." 

"  You  have  hit  it  exactly,"  Robert  roused  himself 
to  say,  with  a  grating  laugh.  "  The  suddenness 
of  the  eclipse  has  taken  my  breath  away — that  is 
all." 

The  Bonneys  had  little  encouragement  in  the  geni 
ality  of  the  company  to  prolong  their  stay. 

"  I  had  not  patience  to  sit  a  minute  longer  !  "  said 
Olive  to  her  spouse,  during  their  homeward  walk. 
"  To  see  her  bedizened  like  a  queen  or — or — an  ac- 


PHEMI&8  TEMPTATION.  195 

tress,  in  that  flaming  red  silk  and  flimsy  white  shawl 
— the  two  together  cost  as  much  as  her  year's  salary 
used  to  be — and  proud  as  a  peacock  of  her  fine 
clothes  and  elegant  rooms,  and  the  compliments  you 
men  were  loading;  her  with  about  her  new  book  !  I 

•  o 

declare,  it  was  enough  to  make  the  hair  stand  up  on 
one's  head,  when  poor,  dear  Charlotte  hasn't  been 
in  her  grave  sixteen  months,  and  the  Very  least  de 
cency  requires  of  the  near  relatives  is  to  wear  crape 
and  bombazine  for  two  full  years.  And  she  to  dress 
up  in  black  when  she  came  to  call  on  me,  to  deceive 
me  into  the  idea  that  she  was  in  mourning  still !  Did 
you  ever  hear  of  such  hypocrisy  ? " 

"  I  don't  think  Phemie  is  a  hypocrite,  my  dear," 
objected  Joe,  mildly.  "  I  have  no  doubt  she  took 
off  black  for  some  good  reason — probably  to  please 
her  husband.  He  is  just  the  sort  of  man  to  be  un 
reasonable  in  such  matters,  and  she  is  the  kind  of 
woman  to  give  up  her  own  tastes  and  feelings  to 
gratify  him.  I  am  afraid  he  does  not  appreciate 
her.  He  was  always  a  conceited  fellow,  and  to  me, 
now,  he  is  unbearable.  We  shall  always  be  glad  to 
see. Phemie  in  our  house,  Oily.  Don't  be  hasty  in 
your  judgment  of  what  you  don't  understand  and 
don't  like  about  her.  If  there  is  any  change,  it  is  of 
his  making,  not  hers.  As  I  said,  she  shall  always  be 
welcome  in  our  house,  but  don't  ask  me  to  go  there 
again  when  Hart  is  at  home.  I  won't  do  it !  " 

When  Mr.  Mallory  took  his  leave,  his  partner  vol 
unteered  to  accompany  him  a  few  blocks  on  his  way. 
Phemie,  left  alone,  gathered  up  her  book  and  the 


196 


PREMIE'S  TEMPTATION. 


newspaper  notices,  and  crept  away  with  them  to  her 
room,  where  she  locked  them  out  of  sight  in  the 
bottom  of  her  trunk,  and  knelt  beside  it  to  pray,  her 
arm  embracing  it  and  her  head  laid  upon  it,  as 
painters  portray  mourners  over  fresh  graves. 


CHAPTER  X. 


S'  HART  was  the  belle  of  that  year  and 
the  next  in  town  and  at  watering-places. 

The  eclat  of  her  beauty  and  conversational 
talents  was  heightened  by  the  flattering 
reputation  she  had  gained  by  her  book, 
especially  when  the  gay  world  discovered  that  she 
was  "  not  a  bit  of  a  blue  "  —  quite  as  accessible  as  a 
woman  who  could  not  spell  ten  consecutive  words 
correctly,  and  with  no  more  nonsense  about  her  than 
characterized  the  sweet  creatures  who  did  not  know 
the  difference  between  writing  a  book  and  publish 
ing  one,  and  who  lisped  behind  her  back  "  how  queer 
it  was  that  the  first  people  should  have  taken  her  up 
so  !  Wasn't  she  a  printer,  or  an  author,  or  some 
thing  else  low  ?  " 

Mr.  Hart  had  hired  a  handsome  house  the  spring 
of  his  return,  furnished  it,  and  thrown  open  his  doors 
to  his  former  friends  and  such  new  ones  as  were 
attracted  by  his  hospitality,  his  wife's  renown  as  a 
hostess  and  a  charming  woman,  and  the  delightful 
reunions  for  which  his  abode  had  become  celebrated. 


198  PHEMIE'S  TEMPTATION. 

Lest  I  should  seem  remiss  in  crediting  with  a  just 
share  of  exclusiveness  the  circle  that  had  embraced 
him  as  a  member  in  his  bachelor  days,  I  remark  that 
the  "  gates  on  golden  hinges  turning  "  gave  reluctant 
entrance  for  a  time  to  the  handsome  and  gifted,  but 
"  so  obscure  "  person  he  had  endowed  with  his  name 
and  fortune.  There  were  horrible  whispers  in  circu 
lation  about  her  former  station  f  and  calling,  and 
patrician  noses  sniffed  the  taint  of  her  vulgar  antece 
dents  with  keenness  worthy  of  the  owners  of  pedi 
grees  a  generation  and  a  half  old.  She  lived  through 
it  and  lived  it  down,  partly  by  her  innate  ladyhood, 
principally  by  means  of  her  husband's  reputed 
wealth,  his  assured  social  standing,  and  the  facilities 
afforded  for  flirtations,  dancing,  music,  and  elegant 
suppers  by  his  resolve  to  place  himself  and  his  wife 
in  the  foremost  rank  of  the  fashionable  world.  He 
moved  forward  to  the  accomplishment  of  this  end 
without  consultation  with  his  co-worker.  If  she  had 
her  ambition,  he  had  his.  He  believed  the  more 
readily  that  she  courted  popularity  as  an  end,  not  as 
a  means,  because  he  was  aware  how  far  the  desire  to 
acquit  himself  gallantly  in  the  sight  of  his  fellows, 
to  be  noticed  and  praised  and  imitated,  entered  into 
his  philanthropic  and  social  schemes.  Self-conceit 
with  him  often  took  a  more  pleasing  guise  than  .the 
commoner  manifestations  of  puppy-like  vanity  and 
straining  after  theatrical  effect. 

He  cultivated  a  gracious  and  graceful  bonhomie 
to  all  classes,  and  disdained  the  responsive  tribute  of 
applause  and  good-will  from  none.  Mallory  was 


PREMIERS  TEMPTATION.  199 

generally  known  to  be  the  shrewder  and  more  sordid 
man  of  the  two,  bat  Hart's  role  in  the  business  was 
prominent  and  important.  He  had  the  gift  of  in 
gratiating  himself  with  otherwise  unmanageable  par 
ties  ;  of  conciliating  the  irate,  and,  as  his  partner 
expressed  it,  "  doing  the  universally  popular."  In 
this  line  his  fine  personal  appearance,  his  easy,  plea 
sant  laugh,  and  his  love  of  playing  the  munificent 
patron  worked  up  to  advantage,  and  brought  him  in 
large  returns  of  the  «oin  he  liked  best — flattering 
notice  wherever  he  went ;  made  of  him  a  man  of  mark 
in  his  orbit. 

We  have  seen  how  his  love  for  Phemie  Rowland 
broke  in  upon  his  bright,  smooth  life  like  the  burst 
of  a  mountain  torrent ;  tearing  up  the  foundations  of 
conventional  prejudice  ;  carrying  before  it  reason,  ex 
pediency — everything  that  should  have  dissuaded  him 
from  the  mad  course  toward  which  he  found  himself 
impelled.  He  loved  popular  approval,  but  he  loved 
his  own  ease  and  happiness  better — better  than  he  did 
the  woman  he  professed  to  adore.  She  intoxicated 
his  senses  ;  took  his  imagination  captive ;  and  when 
senses  and  fancy  were  sobered  by  possession,  he  began 
slowly — at  first,  unwillingly — to  acknowledge  to  him 
self  that  he  had  not  acted  wisely — for  Robert  Hart — 
in  marrying  out  of  his  sphere.  So  long  as  she  ren 
dered  him  the  unquestioning  devotion  of  a  grateful 
underling — fed  his  self-love  with  her  deferential  ad 
miration,  he  was  ready,  in  turn,  to  account  her  fault 
less.  But  when  a  few  unguarded  phrases  indicative 
of  extreme  selfishness  and  puerile  pettishness  had 


200  PREMIER  TEMPTATION. 

fallen  from  him,  and  the  upward  regards  of  her  beau 
tiful  eyes  changed  to  calm  self-restraint;  when  she 
learned  to  be  cautious  of  exciting  his  ill-humor,  and, 
in  her  sincerity,  was  less  demonstrative  of  expressions 
of  unbounded  confidence  in  his  judgment ;  less  enthu 
siastic  in  her  avowals  of  affection;  the  work  of  mutual 
disenchantment  progressed  with  lamentable  rapidity. 
She  had  overrated  him — his  character  and  his  mental 
powers.  His  was  not  the  heart  or  the  comprehen 
sion  to  appreciate  rightly  that  which  was  most  noble 
in  her. 

From  the  unfortunate  evening,  the  main  event  of 
which  was  chronicled  in  our  last  chapter,  the  subject 
of  her  literary  labors  was  not  mentioned  between 
them.  This  reserve  did  not  imply  absolute  estrange 
ment.  Love,  the  Healer,  has  a  faculty,  all  and 
beautifully  his  own,  of  salving  over  heart-wounds, 
however  deep  and  gaping,  so  long  as  inconstancy 
had  no  part  in  producing  them.  There  may  be  in 
the  breast,  both  of  husband  and  wife,  many  closed 
chambers,  sealed  with  the  signet  "  Nevermore,"  and 
Love  still  reign,  undisputed,  although  not  glad 
sovereign  of  the  whole.  It  was  a  curious,  and  soon 
a  recognized  fact  among  those  who  met  the  Harts 
habitually,  that  homage  paid  to  Phemie's  beauty, 
manners,  and  dress  was  acceptable  to  her  lord,  as 
praise  of  her  intellectual  gifts  was  distasteful.  He 
would  survey  her  with  a  delighted  smile  that  won  for 
him  the  reputation  of  uxorious  fondness,  as  she  sailed 
down  the  dance,  or  moved  slowly  through  a  crowd  of 
pleasure-seekers,  scattering  smiles  and  light  words  as 


PREMIE'S  TEMPTATION-.  201 

she  went,  and  leaving  after  her  a  wake  of  admiring 
glances  and  whispered  compliments  to  her  imperial 
loveliness.  He  never  doubted,  at  such  moments,  that 
he  loved  her,  never  questioned  the  propriety  of  the 
step  that  had  made  him  the  owner  of  this  glorious 
accessory  to  his  importance  and  reputation  as  a  man 
of  fashion  and  taste.  She  was  his  wife,  and  none 
could  name  her  without  remembering  whose  property 
she  was ;  at  whose  pleasure  she  sparkled,  or  was  with 
drawn  from  the  visible  firmament  of  belles. 

His  control  over  her  in  these  respects  was  absolute. 
With  her,  when  he  said  "  Shine ! "  it  was  literally  as 
the  heathen  centurion — whose  faith  stands  the  re 
buking  monument  to  doubting  believers — described 
the  stern  discipline  to  which  he  had  been  bred — "  Do 
this,  and  it  was  done."  Done  ;  but,  if  without  hesi 
tation,  also  without  joyousness.  She  never  cavilled 
at  his  will,  but  she  never  applauded  his  mandates.  A 
cunning  woman  would  have  added  to  the  power  her 
charms  gave  her  over  him,  the  more  subtle  influence 
of  flattery  of  his  caprices,  indulgence  of  his  humors. 
Phemie  was  too  honest  for  cajolery.  She  could  obey 
an  unreasonable  behest,  but  she  would  not  aver  that  it 
was  the  acme  of  wisdom,  or  even  act  as  if  obedience 
were  a  delight.  She  walked  through  the  routine  of 
gayety  and  hospitality  appointed  by  him  with  pains 
taking  fidelity — the  tranquil  mien  and  immovable 
perseverance  that  had  distinguished  her  discharge  of 
the  duties  incumbent  upon  her  as  Mr.  Arnold's  book 
keeper.  If  she  felt  the  separation  from  her  friend, 
Miss  Darcy,  and  the  gradual  widening  of  the  distance 
9* 


202  PHEMI&S  TEMPTATION. 

dividing  her  sisters'  lives  of  homely  domesticity  from 
hers,  she  never  breathed  it.  To  whom  should  she  vent 
her  regret?  She  rarely  saw  Miss  Darcy.  She  could 
not  be  a  welcome  guest  in  Robert's  house,  and  she 
never  came  to  it.  Albert,  whom  Phemie  often  had 
with  her,  was  Robert's  beneficiary,  and  blissfully 
ignorant  of  the  sunken  rocks  beneath  a  sea  that 
smiled  so  fair,  while  Emily  and  Olive  plainly  and  not 
amiably  resented  her  superior  wealth  and  degree, 
and  condemned  unsparingly  what  they  termed  her 
"  foreign  follies." 

If  the  celebrity  attendant  upon  Mr.  Mallory's  pro 
clamation  of  her  authorship  were  dust  and  ashes 
between  her  husband's  teeth,  it  was  to  her  a  cup  of 
wormwood,  continually  presented  to  her  lips  less  by 
the  untimely,  or  well-turned  praises  of  strangers  and 
officious  acquaintances,  than  by  the  averted  look, 
the  cold  word,  or  colder  silence  which  were  some  of 
Robert's  methods  of  expressing  his  disrelish  of  the 
topic.  She  had  schooled  herself  to  repress  the  exhi 
bition  of  her  loathing  of  what  was  meant  to  please 
and  to  reward  ;  had  studied  the  set  phrase  of  digni- 
•fied  acceptance ;  of  modest  disclaim ;  the  gentle 
smile  that  thanks  the  appreciative  critic ;  the  dex 
terous  play  of  words  that  repays  compliment  with 
compliment,  and  changes  the  grateful  giver  into  the 
gratified  recipient.  There  were  few  who  excelled 
her  in  these  arts.  Her  husband,  looking  on  grimly 
at  the  hollow  show,  pricked  his  wounded  vanity  into 
sullen  fury  at  the  spectacle.  He  disdained  to  inter 
fere.  He  had  given  his  views  in  full  on  this  head, 


PHEMIE'S  TEMPTATION.  203 

at  the  outset  of  her  "  independent "  career.  By 
every  smile  and  word  that  met  the  fulsome  flatteries 
of  what  should  be  her  sorrow,  not  her  glory,  she  laid 
another  stone  of  the  wall  rising  between  them.  If, 
with  her  eyes  open  to  this  consequence  of  her  insane 
aspirations,  she  was  so  unwomanly  as  to  aspire  to 
heights  he  could  not  climb,  the  work  was  hers,  and 
the  alienation  not  of  his  choosing. 

Toward  the  close  of  the  third  year  of  their  wedded 
life,  she  noted  a  new  phase  of  conduct  in  him — one, 
not  attributable,  so  far  as  she  knew,  to  any  fresh 
indiscretion  or  misdemeanor  of  hers.  His  moody 
fits  were  chronic — when  they  were  not  in  company 
— impenetrable,  and  incurable  by  any  means  of 
which  she  had  knowledge.  Yet  that  she  was,  in 
some  way,  mixed  up  in  his  causes  of  discontent  she 
was  led  to  believe  by  his  increasing  surliness;  by  the 
gloom)'-  stare  she  often  found  bent  upon  her,  during 
his  long  seasons  of  sulky  revery,  and  the  circum 
stance  that  his  brow  cleared  at  the  entrance  of  a 
chance  visitor,  while  in  general  society  he  was  lively 
to  hilariousness.  She  asked  no  explanation  of  this 
singular  behavior,  or  of  the  long  absences,  extending 
deep  into  each  night  of  the  week,  except  upon  such 
evenings  as  they  passed  together  abroad,  or  received 
their  friends  at  home.  Before  she  had  been  six 
months  his  wife,  she  was  taught  that  husbands  were 
irresponsible  beings,  with  respect  to  their  movements 
when  out  of  sight  of  the  partners  of  their  bosoms. 
During  the  many  evenings  she  had  spent  alone,  in 
their  foreign  tour,  she  had  employed  herself  in 


204  PREMIERS  TEMPTATION. 

writing;  forgotten  loneliness,  and  shut  her  eyes  to 
Robert's  neglect  of  her,  in  a  strange  land,  by  peopling 
her  solitude  with  the  creatures  of  her  fancy,  and 
making  them,  in  the  true  artistic  spirit,  likewise  the 
children  of  her  love.  She  had  not  this  solace  now. 
She  had  kept  her  word  to  her  husband,  although  he 
had  rejected  the  sacrifice  with  scorn.  Publishers 
lured  with  golden  offers,  and  editors  prayed  in  vain 
for  sketch,  serial,  and  essay.  She  wrote  nothing 
save  notes  of  ceremony,  and  orders  to  tradespeople. 
Her  music  served  to  while  away  a  couple  of  hours  a 
day,  and  she  read  for  a  couple  more.  Then,  as  she 
detested  fancy-work,  and  domestic  duties,  with  their 
small  family  and  corps  of  able  servants,  would  have 
been  a  work  of  supererogation,  time  not  only  hung 
heavily  upon  her  hands,  but  seemed,  to  her  loathing 
imagination,  to  corrupt  into  an  abomination.  In  all 
the  prosaic  hardships  of  her  early  womanhood,  she 
had  known  none  comparable  to  this  life  of  elegant 
and  fashionable  leisure.  Balls,  concerts,  operas  were 
stale,  vapid,  hateful.  The  senseless  chit-chat  of  her 
associates  interested  her  as  the  cawing-of  a  flock  of 
magpies  would  have  done,  and  she  wearied  to  soul- 
nausea  of  their  petty  jealousies,  their  scandals,  and 
their  shams.  The  Arab  mare — albeit  her  stable  roof 
has  been  the  open  heavens,  and  her  bed  the  desert 
sands  ;  though  in  her  wild  life  she  has  known  hunger, 
thirst,  heat,  and  cold,  will  yet  chafe,  then  droop, 
then  die  of  a  broken  heart  and  homesickness,  if  her 
proud  neck  be  bowed  beneath  the  weight  of  gilded 
caparisons,  and  arched  by  the  iron  curb,  while  she  is 


PHEMI&S  TEMPTATION.  205 

tutored  to  fantastic  curvettings  to  the  accompaniment 
of  slow  music  upon  the  sawdust  floor  and  in  the 
stifling  atmosphere  of  the  hippodrome.  It  was  not 
in  Phemie  to  work,  to  love,  or  to  suffer  like  women 
of  a  lower  range  of  intellect  and  duller  sensibilities. 
Kor  was  it  in  her  when  the  energies  of  her  active 
mind  were  denied  their  rightful  exercise ;  when 
doubt  and  disappointment  racked  love  to  faintness 
and  the  lagging  days  were  so  many  degrees  of  an 
guish,  to  make  her  moan  in  mortal  ears,  much  less 
make  known  her  bitterness  and  desolation  of  spirit 
through  such  channels  as  Robert  had  described  as 
surcharged  with  the  private  woes  and  spites  of 
woman  authors.  Had  she  written  for  the  press  at 
this  era  of  her  life,  the  world  at  large  would  have 
learned  as  little  of  her  individual  griefs  as  did  he,  and 
the  veriest  stranger  who  bowed  to'  her  in  passing 
could  hardly  have  recked  less  than  Robert  Hart  of 
what  went  on  behind  the  handsome  mask  he  knew 
as  his  wife's  face. 

It  was  very  handsome,  on  his  birthnight,  the  twen 
ty-fourth  of  February,  when  she  was  dressed  to  pre 
side  at  the  head  of  the  table  at  which  he  proposed  to 
entertain  a  party  of  gentlemen  in  honor  of  the  anni 
versary.  He  had  bidden  her  procure  a  new  dress  for 
the  occasion,  and  named  the  material.  Her  robe  was 
black  velvet,  with  a  sweeping  train  ;  a  narrow  edging 
of  lace  softening  the  contrast  of  the  sable  robe  against 
her  neck  and  arms,  a  ruby  brooch  and  a  broad  baud 
of  chased  gold,  with  a  ruby  clasp,  being  her  only 
ornaments.  When  her  toilet  waa  completed,  she  dis- 


206  PHEMI&S  TEMPTATION. 

missed  her  maid,  and  stood  before  the  tall  glass  in  her 
dressing-room,  gazing  at  the  regal  figure  therein  re 
flected.  Her  eye  gleamed,  and  her  lip  curled  pres 
ently,  but  in  superb  disdain — not  vanity — at  what  she 
saw. 

"  There  are  times,"  she  said,  low  and  hissingly, 
"  when  I  could  rend  all  comeliness  from  my  face  with 
my  own  hands,  crave  disfigurement  and  deformity  as 
Heaven's  best  boon  to  one  who  is  valued  for  naught 
else ;  who  has  failed  to  awaken  anything  but  the 
lowest ,  type  of  love — sensuous  admiration  of  that 
which  delights  the  eye.  And  for  this — this— I  have 
given  all — all !  Heaven  help  me !  Given  all — and 
lost  it!" 

She  turned  from  the  mirror  with  a  shudder  of  dis 
gust,  and  went  down  stairs.  The  parlors  were  in 
perfect  order,  and  the  tasteful  luxury  of  their  appoint 
ments  was  perceptible  in  the  dim,  half-illumination  of 
the  hour  preceding  the  arrival  of  the  guests.  The 
mistress'  old  habits  of  punctuality  clung  to  her  still. 
If  they  were  going  out  to  dinner,  she  usually  dressed 
before  Mr.  Hart  returned  home  at  evening,  and  the 
visitor  who,  ignorant  of  her  engagements,  should  drop 
in  on  a  ball-night,  was  pretty  sure  to  find  her  in  full 
costume,  sitting  at  her  piano,  or  with  a  book,  or,  as 
to-night,  pacing  slowly  up  and  down  the  long  reoms 
at  a  time  when  other  ladies  were  beginning  the  im 
portant  business  of  robing  for  the  festive  scene.  She 
walked  now  until  the  fever  in  glance  and  veins  began 
to  subside,  then  sat  down  in  an  alcoved  window  at 
the  extremity  of  the  back  parlor,  and  looked  out  into 


PHEMIE'S  TEMPTATION.  207 

the  stormy  moonlight  flashing  from  the  icy  boughs  of 
the  two  dwarfish  elms  guarding  the  fountain  in  the 
paved  court. 

The  window-seat  was  full  of  exotics  in  pots,  and 
among  them  the  florist,  commissioned  by  Mr.  Hart  to 
decorate  the  rooms,  had  placed  a  moss  basket  set 
thickly  with  heliotropes  and  white  rose-buds.  Me 
chanically  Phemie  took  up  one  of  the  purple  sprays. 
It  all  came  back  to  her  with  the  inhalation  of  the 
vanilla  odor — the  homely  little  study,  the  vine-curtain 
ed  window,  the  one  plant  upon  the  sill  with  its  tufts 
of  royal  bloom — and  he — her  king,  her  dream-lover — 
his  head  thrown  slightly  back  against  the  white  cover 
of  the  old  chair,  his  hand  toying  with  his  luxuriant 
beard,  the  very  picture  of  a  debonair  knight,  his  deep 
gray  eyes  looking  lovingly  upon  her.  She  had  han 
dled  and  smelled  heliotrope  a  hundred  times  since 
that  summer.  What  lent  this  tiny  cluster  the  power 
to  reproduce  the  tender  grace  of  that  dead  season  ? 
He  had  loved  her  then!  There  was  chivalric  disre 
gard  of  the  world's  frown  in  his  passionate  prayer 
that  she  would  share  his  home  and  life  ;  large-hearted 
liberality  in  his  offer  to  maintain  her  brother ;  con 
stancy,  the  guerdon  of  which  should  have  been  happi 
ness,  in  his  renewal  of  his  suit  after  she  had  rejected 
it.  And  in  the  troubled  course  of  their  wedded  life 
he  had  denied  her  nothing.  At  least — as  he  was  too 
fond  of  saying — nothing  that  money  could  purchase. 
He  was  lavish  with  his  means — she  used  to  fear  ex 
travagant,  but  her  intimation  to  that  effect  had  met 

O  ' 

with  a  repulse  she  was  not  likely  to  forget,  coupled 


208  PREMIE'S  TEMPTATION. 

as  it  was  with  an  allusion  to  her  "  severely  practical 
views  of  money-making  and  money-spending."  He 
had  never  rid  himself  of  the  idea  that  she  was  dis 
posed  to  be  penurious ;  that  her  experience  in  earn 
ing  her  living  had  made  her  grasping  and  narrow- 
minded  upon  certain  points.  For  himself,  he  would 
declare,  he  valued  wealth  only  for  the  good  it  would 
do,  the  happiness  one  could  procure  by  its  use. 

"  These  are  matters  of  which  you  know  nothing, 
my  dear,"  was  the  phrase  that  answered  her  scruples 
as  to  the  propriety  of  this  or  that  outlay.  "  If  you 
please,  I  shall  do  as  I  deem  best  in  the  circumstances." 

A  truly  generous  man  would  hardly  have  reminded 
her  in  so  many  ways  that  he  had  found  her  poor  and 
made  her  rich,  but  Phemie  hastened  away  now  from 
a  thought  that  had  often  brought  the  spark  to  her 
eye  and  flush  to  her  temples.  She  dismissed,  also,  a 
suspicion  yet  more  galling — an  impression  that  was, 
at  times,  a  conviction — that  his  liberality  toward  her 
was  but  another  form  of  selfish  enjoyment  in  making 
the  most  of  what  reflected  credit  upon  himself.  She 
pondered,  instead,  upon  the  loving  words  and  acts  of 
their  brief  courtship  and  honeymoon  ;  upon  the  gushes 
of  tenderness  that  had  intermitted  his  injustice,  his 
coldness,  his  anger,  even  during  the  miserably. unsat 
isfactory  period  of  their  residence  in  their  present 
home. 

In  rehearsing  these,  the  figure  in  the  old  chair 
regained  his  manliness ;  the  gray  eyes  were  once 
more  wells  of  feeling  and  thought ;  the  voice  had 
the  musical  ring  that  distinguished  it  for  her  from 


PHEMIE'8  TEMPTATION.  209 

all  other  tones  that  ever  sounded  through  the  shabby 
little  house,  and  she  sat  again  at  his  feet — an  hum 
ble  worshipper.  What  had  been  her  part  in  bring 
ing  about  their  estrangement  ?  She  had  been  dis 
trusted,  misunderstood — yes  !  taunted  with  what  she 
would  else  have  esteemed  an  honor ;  been  schooled 
and  repressed  until  her  goaded  spirit  had  almost 
broken  out  into  madness — and  her  reply  had  ever 
been  temperate  and  guarded.  Should  it  not  have 
been  loving  as  well  ?  Did  not  other  wives  bow  their 
pride  to  sue  for  a  rekindling  of  waning  affection  ? 
bear  reproach,  harshness,  infidelity — in  the  might  of 
a  devotion  that  death  alone*  could  weaken  ?  Was 
it  only  passive  duty  that  she  had  promised  at  the 
altar? 

"  My  Father  !  forgive  me  this,  my  sin  !  " 
The  words  were  a  groan,  and  the  proud  forehead 
bent  low,  as  this  broke  the  stillness  of  the  vacant 
rooms.     Ere  the  echo  died  away,  the  front  parlor- 
door  opened  and  a  head  was  thrust  in.     Unkempt, 
wild-eyed,  haggard  as  it  was,  she  knew  her  husband, 
and  hurried  forward  to  greet  him,  calling  his  name 
lest  he  might  overlook  her  in  her  obscure  nook. 
"  Robert !  I  am  here !     Are  you  looking  for  me  ?  " 
"  Why  the  deuce  should  I  be  looking  for  you  ?  "  he 
returned,  roughly,  without  awaiting  her  approach. 

He  was  half-way  up  the  stairs  by  the  time  she 
reached  the  hall.  She  followed  him,  afraid  to  take 
counsel  with  Pride  or  Reason  as  to  the  expediency 
of  so  doing. 

"  Well !  what  is  it  ?  "  he  queried,  as  she  entered 


210  PREMIERS  TEMPTATION. 

his  dressing-room.     He  had  torn  off  his  cravat  and 
collar,  and  was  strapping  his  razor  furiously. 

"  Nothing.  I  only  came  in  to  see  how  you  were 
to-night,  and  to  ask  if  I  could  help  you  in  any  way." 

"  Which  means  that  I  am  late,  by  way  of  variety  ! 
As  to  my  health,  why  should  it  not  be  good  as  usual  ? 
What  has  come  over  you  ?  Who  has  been  talking  to 
you  that  you  should  interest  yourself  upon  so  unim 
portant  a  subject  ?  " 

Phemie  held  the  spray  of  heliotrope  very  tightly. 
"  I  have  fancied  that  you  were  not  looking  very 
well,  lately.  I  am  afraid  you  work  too  hard,  Robert. 
This  is  a  wearisome  life  we  are  leading.  And  we 
Bee  very  little  of  one  another." 

He  made  no  reply  for  several  moments,  but  scraped 
away  busily  at  his  upper  lip,  the  only  portion  of  his 
face  ever  visited  by  the  razor.  As  he  wiped  it,  and 
drove  it  back  into  the  case,  he  turned  to  look  at  her. 
"  Whose  fault  is  that  ?  I  learned,  ages  ago,  that  the 
less  you  had  of  my  company,  the  better  pleased  you 
were.  I  thought  I  was  gratifying  you  by  staying 
away,  and  leaving  you  to  more  congenial  pursuits 
and  companions." 

"  I  am  sorry  I  ever  gave  you  cause  to  imagine  that," 
Phemie  replied,  going  up  to  him  and  laying  her  hands 
on  his  shoulders,  while  she  gazed  into  his  pale  and 
gloomy  countenance.  "  We  have  both  made  some 
sad  mistakes  in  times  past,  love.  Let  us  put  away 
the  memory  of  these,  and  begin — dating  from  this, 
your  birthday — a  new  and  happier  life !  " 

"  That   is   easier  said  than  done !  "     He  put  her 


PHEMIE'S  TEMPTATION.  211 

hands  aside,  and  went  on  with  his  toilet,  his  brow 
darkening  with  each  word.  "It  is  too  late  to  mend 
matters  now,  Phemie.  And  I  don't  want  to  talk  of 
mistakes  that  cannot  be  rectified.  Those  fellows  will 
be  coming  in  directly,  and  I  need  to  keep  my  senses 
about  me,  to-night.  If  you  really  wish  to  help  me, 
pour  me  out  a  glass  of  brandy  and  water.  You  will 
find  the  decanter  in  the  closet  over  there." 

She  dreaded  to  give  it  to  him.  His  eyes  were 
already  blood-shot ;  his  hands  unsteady,  and  his  breath 
told  the  tale  of  previous  potations.  But  she  concocted 
the  draught  and  put  the  glass  into  his  hand.  He 
tasted  it,  and  instantly  threw  the  liquor  into  the  grate, 
where  it  proved  the  strength  of  the  preparation  by 
blazing  up  into  a  column  of  blue  and  white  flame. 

"  Slops ! "  he  interjected,  filling  the  goblet  two- 
thirds  full  with  the  raw  spirits,  and  swallowing  it. 
"  What  has  set  you  upon  the  stool  of  repentance  ?  "  he 
interrogated,  then,  laughing  bitterly.  "  Do  you  think 
I  am  going  to  die,  that  you  have  grown  remorseful, 
or  do  you  want  to  ask  a  favor  of  me  ! " 

"  I  hope  you  may  live  for  many  years  to  prove  the 
sincerity  of  my  repentance."  Phemie  smiled,  but 
the  fingers  holding  the  flower  were  cold  and  tremu 
lous.  "  But  I  have  a  favor  to  ask  at  your  hands.  If, 
in  days  gone  by,  I  have  seemed  aught  but  affectionate 
and  dutiful ;  if,  when  I  might  have  lessened  your  cares, 
I  have  increased  them  instead,  or  failed  to  discern 
your  need  of  help  and  cheer ;  if  I  have  appeared  for 
getful  of  the  generous  love  that  overlooked  disparity 
of  rank,  poverty,  wilfulness,  unworthy  pride — all  the 


212  PHEMIE'S  TEMPTATION. 

blemishes  that  have  marred  my  character  as  girl  and 
wife ;  if  for  the  signal  benefits  you  rendered  me  and 
mine,  I  have  seemed — indeed  it  was  only  in  seeming, 
dear — to  come  short  of  the  gratitude  due  you,  I  beg 
your  forgiveness  ;  entreat  you  to  believe  me  when  I 
say  that  from  the  hour  that  saw  me  your  wife,  your 
happiness  and  your  wishes  have  been  my  first  thought. 
I  may  have  erred  in  the  manner  of  my  attempt  to 
advance  these,  but  I  have  striven  faithfully  and  pray 
erfully  to  act  as  you  would  have  me  do ;  to  make 
myself  what  you  would  have  me  be." 

"  I  have  imposed  no  strictures,  enacted  no  laws  for 
your  control,"  rejoined  her  husband,  as  she  paused. 
"  I  would  have  made  you  happy  in  my  way.  You  pre 
ferred  to  be  miserable  in  yours.  When  I  discovered 
this,  I  ceased  to  oppose  you.'  To  the  world  we  have 
long  been  two  in  sentiment,  in  feeling,  and  in  aim. 
The  time  when  concession  on  your  side — a  softening 
of  your  self-will  and  pride  of  opinion  would  have  uni 
ted  us,  has  passed.  You  should  never  have  married  a 
man  you  could  afterwards  bring  yourself  to  despise. 
My  error  was  in  fancying  that  Love  would  temper 
your  asperities  and  curb  your  ambition.  We  had 
better  dismiss  the  subject  of  these  unfortunate  and 
irreconcilable  differences.  The  marriage  yoke  has 
galled  you  fearfully.  I  meant  that  it  should  be  light 
and  pleasant  as  it  is  to  other  wives.  It  shall  not  be 
my  fault  if  it  oppresses  you  in  future.  As  to  your 
vaunted  obedience  and  fidelity,  your  conscience  must 
decide  whether  these  have  been  exemplified  in  your 
conduct.  While  vou  have  avoided — with  an  offen- 


PREMIE' 8  TEMPTATION.  213 

sive  punctiliousness  more  displeasing  than  rebellion 
— open  resistance  to  my  few  expressed  wishes,  you 
have  wrought  against  me  with  all  the  sullen  strength 
of  your  will.  You  have  not  coarsely  sullied  your  repu 
tation  nor  mine,  but  the  world  has,  doubtless,  had  its 
say  about  a  woman  who  wearies  of  the  society  of  her 
husband,  and  seeks  her  chief  enjoyment  in  association 
with  literary  men  of  dubious  morality.  These  Plato 
nic  loves  are  apt  to  be  misconstrued." 

She  stopped  him  there  peremptorily.  "  Kobert !  take 
that  back  !  You  do  not  know  what  you  are  saying !  " 

"  I  retract  nothing !  I  could  say  much  more  !  " 
His  red  eyes  met  her  with  a  hardihood  that  looked 
like  brutality,  when  one  considered  her  appeal  and 
the  provocation  that  led  to  it. 

She  turned  away.  "  I  needed  only  that !  I  have 
made  my  last  effort  to  right  myself  and  to  save  you  ! 
Henceforward,  you  shall  not  be  troubled  by  opposi 
tion  from  me  to  your  moods  and  your  pleasures ! "  She 
laid  a  significant  emphasis  on  the  last  word,  and  left 
the  room  as  it  was  uttered. 

He  was  not  quite  dressed  when  a  servant  brought 
him  a  letter.  "  From  Mrs.  Hart,  sir  !  " 

It  was  a  blank  envelope,  containing  a  note  super 
scribed  by  his  hand  with  the  name  of  a  popular  bal 
let  dancer.  Beneath  the  address,  Phemie  had  written 
three  lines.  "  This  was  sent  to  me  a  year  ago,  in  re 
venge,  the  person  to  whom  it  was  written  stated,  for  your 
desertion  of  her  for  a  prettier  comrade.  You  should 
never  have  seen  it  again  but  for  your  crowning  insult. 
I,  too,  have  something  to  forgive — and  I  forgive  it." 


CHAPTER  XI. 

HEMIE  awoke  on  the  morning  succeeding 
the  birthnight  party  with  a  throbbing  head 
ache  and  a  dull  sense  of  misery  that  were 
the  reaction  of  the  overstrained  nerves 
and  mind  during  the  ordeal  of  that  trying 
evening.  She  made  no  effort  to  rise  after  the  first 
movement  of  her  head  from  the  pillow  had  been  at 
tended  with  blinding  pain  and  giddiness,  but  lay  still, 
thinking  over  all  that  had  passed  since  the  last  sun 
set.  She  had  thrown  her  last  card,  and  lost  every 
thing  upon  the  venture.  Even  the  pretence  of  amity 
was  gone,  now. 

Robert  Hart  was  esteemed  an  amiable,  easy-tem 
pered  gentleman  by  those  who  only  met  him  abroad. 
His  wife  knew  him  to  be  implacable  when  he  con 
ceived  that  he  had  met  with  a  direct  affront.  He 
had  never  forgiven  Miss  Darcy's  injudicious  candor 
before  his  marriage.  Phemie  was  certain  that  she 
had  sinned  beyond  the  possibility  of  pardon  in  con 
fronting  him  with  the  evidence  of  his  unfaithfulness 


PHEMIE'8  TEMPTATION.  215 

to  his  marriage-vow,  and  his  subsequent  falsehood  in 
boasting  of  his  constancy.  She  had  acted  rashly  un 
der  the  spur  of  the  womanly  indignation  that  surged  up 
within  her  at  the  groundless  slur  upon  her  purity  of 
thought  and  conduct ;  had  thrown  down  the  gauntlet 
of  open  warfare  ;  crushed  the  feeble  germ  just  born 
in  her  breast — the  hope  of  a  return  to  something  like 
the  peace  and  love  of  other  days.  "She  did  not 
care !  "  she  said  to  herself,  in  her  half  stupor.  She 
cared  for  nothing  now  !  She  had  long  known  herself 
to  be  a  wronged  wife ;  that  her  husband  sought  in 
companionship  with  the  basest  of  her  sex  the  enter 
tainment  he  failed  to  derive  from  her  society.  He 
had  told  her  once  that  it  rested  him  to  talk  with  a 
silly  woman,  after  standing  on  tip-toe,  trying  to  catch 
a  sight  of  her  meaning. 

"  Mont  Blanc  is  a  grand  object,"  he  had  said,  at 
another  time  in  jest,  that  had  for  her  a  bitter  flavor 
of  earnest.  "  But  it  tires  one's  neck  to  be  always 
staring  at  the  summit.  You  are  a  moral  and  mental 
Mont  Blanc." 

This  had  been  her  fault— that  she  lacked  the  power 
to  belittle  herself  to  the  stature  he  had  decided  was 
the  maximum  of  intellectual  altitude  in  the  woman 
who  was  to  call  him  lord.  She  had  avoided  topics  in 
which  he  took  no  interest;  never  "bored"  him  with 
flights  of  fancy  she  knew  he  would  consider  "  mere 
moonshine,"  and  refrained,  after  one  or  two  attempts, 
to  induce  him  to  read  and  study  with  her. 

"  Cui  bono?"  he  used  to  say,  yawningly ;  "I  don't 
see  that  the  pursuit  of  such  questions  will  make  you 


216  PREMIERS  TEMPTATION. 

a  more  sprightly  conversationalist,  or  me  a  more 
popular  man.  To  let  you  into  a  secret  worth  know 
ing,  Phemie,  the  majority  of  people  don't  like  you  to 
be  wiser  than  themselves.  I  hate  especially  to  be 
talked  down  to  by  a  woman." 

These  sayings  of  his  kindly  moods  were  confirmed 
and  intensified  by  the  gibes  and  gloomy  accusations 
of  his  graver  turns.  If  he  had  a  forte,  it  was  strong 
superficiality.  His  con  tent -in  being,  in  the  apt 
phrase  of  a  caustic  writer,  "  well-smattered,"  was 
supreme,  and  a  quietus  to  higher,  and,  in  his  estima 
tion,  profitless  aspirations.  With  the  fine  sense  of 
honor  and  charity  that  distinguishes  true-hearted 
wifeliness,  Phemie  had  never  let  her  thoughts  rest 
upon  the  glaring  flaws  in  what  she  had  once  thought 
was  almost  perfection.  The  unworthy  catalogue  of 
his  foibles  and  vices  was  spread  out  before  her  now, 
and  she  conned  it  as  a  duty  essential  to  the  correct 
survey  of  her  position.  She  had  demeaned  herself 
to  ask  pardon  when  she  had  done  no  wilful  wrong, 
but  she  would  do  so  no  more.  Was  his  love,  or,  to 
be  more  frank  with  herself,  his  toleration,  then,  the 
only  thing  worth  living  for?  She  had  shut  her  eyes 
obstinately,  all  along,  to  the  fact  that  she  was  the 
nobler  and  stronger  creature  of  the  two ;  that  his 
assumption  of  lordliness  on  the  score  of  the  accident 
of  his  sex  was  but  another  proof  of  a  petty  and  ig 
noble  nature ;  that  the  true  man  would  have  joyed 
to  find  her  standing  upon  the  higher  level  of  thought 
and  knowledge  trodden  by  few ;  delighted,  with  the 
world,  to  do  her  abundant  honor ;  would  have  stimu- 


PREMIERS  TEMPTATION.  217 

lated  her  to  put  forth  her  full  powers,  and  himself 
been  foremost  in  perceiving  and  applauding  the 
tokens  of  spiritual  and  mental  growth. 

"  Life  was  bleak,  yesterday.  It  is  nothing,  to-day ! " 
she  muttered,  finally,  closing  her  eyes  in  a  feverish 
doze,  that  teemed  with  the  images  of  desolation  and 
dread  which  had  beset  her  while  waking. 

Robert  generally  slept  late  on  the  day  after  a  party. 
Wine  had  flowed  more  freely  than  water  at  his  board 
overnight.  When  he  and  his  boon-companions  sought 
Phemie  in  the  drawing-room,  there  were  not  three  of 
the  fifteen  assembled  to  do  honor  to  the  host's  natal- 
day  who  were  not  visibly  affected  by  the  potency  of 
his  famed  vintages.  He  had  laughed  loudest;  talked 
fastest  of  all.  WThen  Phemie,  weary  and  disgusted, 
stole  away  through  a  side  door,  only  four  or  five 
noticed  her  retreat,  and  he  was  not  one  of  those. 
Her  last  glimpse  of  him  showed  her  his  tall  form  sup 
ported  by  the  mantel  as  he  stood  with  his  back  to  it, 
both  elbo\vs  resting  upon  the  marble  shelf,  one  hand 
stroking  his  beard,  and  a  vacant  smile  upon  his  face. 

His  wife  was  therefore  surprised  at  the  answer  re 
turned  by  the  maid  for  whom  she  rang  at  nine  o'clock, 
bidding  her  "  present  her  compliments  to  Mr.  Hart, 
and  ask  him  to  breakfast  without  her,  since  she  was 
suffering  with  a  headache." 

"  Mr.  Hart  has  gone  down  town,  ma'am.  He  had 
a  cup  of  coffee  and  a  slice  of  toast  at  eight  o'clock. 
He  ordered  it  last  night." 

"  Indeed !     Did  he  leave  no  message  ? " 

"  None,  ma'am  ! "  There  was  curiosity  verging 
10 


218  PHEMIE'S  TEMPTATION. 

upon  impertinence  in  the  girl's  eye.  For  some  rea 
son  this  unprecedented  industry  on  the  master's  part 
had  been  the  theme  of  the  kitchen  cabal,  and  Phemie 
would  not  furnish  another  item. 

"  Very.  well.  I  am  glad  he  did  not  disturb  inc. 
My  head  is  better  for  my  long  nap.  But  I  shall  take 
my  chocolate  in  my  dressing-room.  And  should  any 
one  call  this  forenoon,  say  that  I  am  not  well,  and 
cannot  see  company." 

A  tedious  forenoon  it  was,  as  she  spent  it — lying 
upon  the  sofa  in  her  darkened  boudoir,  unable  to 
read,  to  sew,  to  sleep,  or  to  think  for  the  intolerable 
pain  tugging  at  every  nerve  in  scalp  and  brain,  and, 
over  all,  the  dull  weight  of  misery  that  deprived  her 
of  will  and  power  to  resist  the  physical  malady. 

It  was  four  o'clock  of  the  pale,  wintry  afternoon, 
the  inclement  frown  of  the  heavens  casting  twilight 
shadows  into  the  corners  of  the  room,  even  after  the 
shutters  were  opened,  when  the  same  curious-eyed 
maid  tapped  at  the  door  with  the  information  that, 
"  Mrs.  Mandell  and  Mrs.  Bonney  wanted  to  see  her 
particularly." 

Phemie  knitted  her  brows  at  the  tone  and  wordinc: 

o 

of  the  message.  "  I  shall  see  my  sisters  whenever 
they  call.  I  have  told  you  that  before,"  I  think,  she 
said  firmly.  "  Show  them  up." 

Emily  was  foremost — a  buxom  matron  in  plum- 
colored  silk,  a  fur  cloak,  and  plum-colored  satin  hat 
— her  best  walking-attire,  although  the  weather  was 
threatening.  As  she  told  Olive,  before  setting  out 
upon  their  mission,  "  There  was  never  any  certainty 


PHEMIE^S  TEMPTATION.  219 

that  one  would  not  find  a  houseful  of  company  at 
Phemie's,  and,  if  it  rained,  they  could  call  a  carriage." 

Olive,  prudent  and  less  weak  fashionward,  appeared 
in  a  green  reps,  in  which,  with  her  brown  cloth  cloak 
and  black  hat,  her  dumpling  figure  reminded  the  ob 
server  of  an  unripe  acorn,  a  bit  of  the  black  stem 
sticking  to  the  russet  cap.  She  followed  Emily's  lead 
so  closely  that  Phemie  did  not  have  to  replace  her 
heavy  head  upon  the  pillow  between  their  kisses. 

"  I  am  sorry  I  cannot  get  up,"  she  said,  as  it  sank 
back  with  a  wild  beat  of  added  anguish  that  closed 
her  eyes  and  deadened  her  hearing  for  an  instant. 
"  But  my  head  aches  dreadfully,  to-day.  I  have  lain 
here  ever  since  I  left  my  bed  this  morning." 

"  I  was  saying  to  Emily,  as  we  came  along,  that  I 
had  no  doubt  we  should  find  you  completely  pros 
trated,"  commenced  Olive,  with  pigeon-like  dignity. 
"  But  you  should  bear  up.  None  of  us  can  expect  to 
be  entirely  exempt  from  trouble,  you  know.  I  said 
to  Joe,  to-day,  at  dinner,  '  Phemie  has  always  had 
things  her  otfn  way,'  so  I  remarked, '  until  I  am  afraid 
she  has  begun  to  imagine  that  she  is  never  to  have  a 
cross.' ' 

"  Poor,  dear  Charlotte  often  observed  that  each  of 
us  must  bear  our  cross  at  some  time,"  Emily  said, 
impressively  original.  "  You  have  a  great  deal  of 
fortitude  naturally,  Euphemia.  Of  course,  the  life 
you  have  led  of  late  years  has  enervated  you  to  a  cer 
tain  extent,  but  you  really  must  not  give  way  at  the 
first  breath  of  trouble.  Recollect  the  Christian 
patience  with  which  our  beloved  mother  met  trials 


220  PREMIE'S  TEMPTATION. 

far  more  severe  than  what  you  are  now  passing 
through." 

Phemie  pressed  her  bounding  temples  between  her 
palms,  and  stared,  in  bewilderment,  first  at  one,  then 
the  other,  as  childless,  houseless,  penniless  Job  might 
have  glared  at  Eliphaz  when  he  ''essayed  to  commune 
with  him  "  upon  the  unreasonableness  of  his  sorrow. 

"  A  cross !  I  do  not  understand !  I  have  a  head 
ache,  a  bad  headache !  But  I  do  not  regard  that  as 
an  affliction." 

"  You  never  used  to  have  headaches,"  Emily  took 
up  the  word,  without  getting  the  meaning  of  the 
faintly-gasped  sentences.  "  While  your  habits  of 
life  were  frugal,  regular,  active,  your  health  was  ex 
cellent.  Rely  upon  it,  Phemie,  prosperity  is  not  the 
best  school  for  many  people.  Excuse  me  for  doubt 
ing  whether  it  has  not  been  injurious  to  you  in  many 
ways.  Perhaps  the  change  in  your  condition — •" 

She  hesitated,  seeing  the  white  cheeks  redden  into 
a  burning  blush. 

Olive  was  prompt  to  cover  the  pause.  "  I  said  to 
Emily,  not  ten  minutes  ago,  that  adversity  was  a 
wholesome  discipline  ;  I  am  sure  I  shall  always  be 
grateful  to  a  kind  Providence  that  I  learned  so  much 
in  my  youth  that  is  useful  to  me  now.  I  was  telling 
Jane,  last  night,  wrhen  she  said  how  Mr.  Bonney  en 
joyed  the  hot  muffins  I  surprised  him  with  for  tea, 
that  I  was  glad  I  could  cater  for  my  husband,  be  a 
help  instead  of  a  hindrance  to  him.  You  never  took 
to  housekeeping,  Phemie,  and,  as  mother  and  I  con 
cluded  when  she  was  on  here  last  spring,  you  have 


PI1EMI&S  TEMPTATION.  221 

paid  no  more  attention  to  your  domestic  affairs  since 
you  were  married  than  if  you  were  a  boarder,  instead 
of  the  mistress  of  the  house.  I  said  to  mother,  then, 
that  things  were  going  on  in  the  most  frightfully 
wasteful  style.  Three  women  and  a  man  to  do  the 
work  for  two  people,  and  the  mistress  never  looking 
into  the  closets  or  pantries,  or  broken  meat-basket,  or 
coal-cellar — and,  for  the  matter  of  that,  never  lending 
a  hand's  turn  in  the  kitchen.  '  Nothing  but  speedy 
ruin  can  come  of  it,'  I  said,  and  I  reminded  Joe,  this 
very  day,  that  I  did  say  it,  and  he  sitting  at  the  table 
with  mother  and  me  when  I  uttered  it !  " 

"Not  quite  so  bad  as  that,  Olive  !  "  Phemie  said, 
not  very  steadily,  for  the  beating  in  her  temples 
sounded  in  her  ears  loud  as  the  tick  of  an  eight-day 
clock,  and  moved  her  to  nausea.  "  I  have  kept  my 
household  accounts  carefully,  and  exercised  a  general 
supervision  of  the  establishment.  There  was  no  need 
for  me  to  do  more." 

Her  calmer,  usual  self  would  not  have  entered  upon 
a  defence,  but  she  was  sick,  confused,  and  very  weak. 
It  troubled  her  to  hear  the  patter  of  their  whining 
tones,  and  she  wanted  to  check  it  without  offending 
them. 

"  There  was  your  greatest  mistake  !  "  It  was  Em 
ily's  turn.  "  It  is  the  invariable  mistake  of  literary 
women  to  think  that  they  can  leave  the  work  of  their 
households  to  servants,  while  they  cultivate  their 
higher  talents.  A  woman  should  not  marry  unless 
she  can  make  up  her  mind  to  sacrifice  all  thought  of 
pursuing  the  bent  of  her  own  mind  and  taste — to 


222  PIIEXIE'S  TEMPTATION. 

conform  herself  to  her  husband's  notions  in  every 
thing  ;  to  study  his  interests  in  every  imaginable 
way ;  to  consider  nothing  menial  that  can  add  to  his 
comfort;  to  live  in  and  for  him  alone.  He  has  a 
right  to  demand  this.  If  more  of  our  sex — especially 
the  stronger-minded  portion  of  it — rightly  understood 
this  cardinal  principle  of  the  married  state,  we  should 
hear  less  of  the  unhappy  lives  of  learned  ladies." 

Olive's  fixed,  bead-like  eyes  said,  "Hear!  hear!" 
to  this  faithful  repetition  of  Seth's  dogmas. 

Phemie  chafed  her  clammy  hands  against  each 
other.  The  cold  sweat  stood  upon  her  brow,  while 
her  lips  were  burning  with  fever.  "  I  am  not  a  liter 
ary  woman,  Emily.  I  have  written  nothing  for  two 
years.  I  shall  never  publish  another  line." 

"  Don't  say  that ! "  objected  Emily,  gravely.  "  Seth 
thinks  it  is  possible  you  may  be  able  to  turn  your 
talent  to  account  at  last.  Unless — as  I  fear — you 
have  acquired  such  a  distaste  for  labor  of  all  kinds  as 
to  shrink  from  the  idea  of  working,  even  to  aid  your 
husband.  It  will  be  a  sad  blow  to  your  pride,  no 
doubt,  but  you  must  remember  that  the  humiliation 
to  him  is  the  point  to  be  considered  most.  It  is  an 
awful  stroke  to  a  proud  man  to  have  his  wife  obliged 
to  work  to  help  support  his  family.  I  always  pity 
such  a  one  from  the  bottom  of  my  heart.  And  Seth 
says  this  failure  is  a  complete  crash — although  noth 
ing  worse  than  he  has  anticipated  for  a  year  and 
more." 

Phemie  sat  upright,  her  face  colorless,  putting 
back  the  heavy  hair  from  her  forehead  with  both 


PIIEMIE'8  TEMPTATION.  223 

shaking   hands.      "Failure!     What   did    you   say? 
Am  I  dreaming !     Who  has  failed  ?  " 

^T"  O 

"  She  doesn't  know  it ! "  ejaculated  Olive,  in  real 
pity,  while  the  self-righteous  Ernily  quailed  before 
the  questioning  eyes  of  the  deceived  wife. 

"  Can  it  be  that  Mr.  Hart  has  not  told  you  1 "  be 
gan  the  latter,  in  painful  embarrassment,  then  stop 
ped. 

"  He  has  told  me  nothing.  He  has  had  no  oppor 
tunity.  We  had  company  last  night,  and  I  have  not 
seen  him  to-day !  If  you  ever  loved  me,  Emily, 
speak  out ! " 

"  Mallory  and  Hart  have  failed.  Their  notes  went 
to  protest  to-day.  It  is  all  over  town,  and  everybody 
says  it  is  the  worst  failure  we  have  had  here  in  years," 
said  Emily,  with  none  of  the  pharisaical  satisfaction 
she  had  evinced  in  her  lecture  upon  the  genius  of  the 
state  matrimonial. 

Phemie  lay  back  upon  her  cushions,  with  closed 
eyes  and  clasped  hands.  The  furrow  was  gone  from 
between  her  brows,  and  in  its  stead  there  was  en 
throned  a  solemnity,  the  serenity  of  which  the  shal 
lower  hearts  of  her  sisters  could  not  comprehend. 
She  lay  thus  for  some  moments,  during  which  they, 
awed  and  uncertain  how  to  act,  exchanged  glances 
akin  to  dismay. 

"  Thank  you  for  telling  me !"  Phemie  broke  the  to 
them  awkward  silence  by  saying ;  "I  see  now  that  I 
should  have  suspected  it  before.  Much  is  clear  to  me 
that  was  before  dark.  I  am  glad  it  is  nothing  worse. 
We  know  enough  of  poverty  to  be  assured  that  it  is 


224  PHEMIE' S  TEMPTATION. 

the  least  of  really  formidable  evils.  I  think  I  can 
get  up,  now.  The  shock  has  started  my  headache 
into  a  retreat.  When  Robert  comes  he  must  not  see 
me  drooping.  Poor  fellow !  What  is  my  suffering 
compared  with  his?" 

She  had  thrust  her  feet  into  slippers,  and,  still  stand 
ing,  made  an  effort  to  shake  down  her  hair  before  the 
mirror.  She  staggered,  and  turned  paler  in  the  attempt. 

"  You  had  better  lie  down  again,"  suggested  Emily, 
uneasily. 

"  Oh,  no !  I  shall  be  better  directly.  I  have 
barely  time  to  get  myself  ready  and  go  down  to  meet 
him.  He  is  often  home  by  five." 

"In  that  case,  we  must  go!"  said  Olive,  bridling 
at  what  she  considered  a  hint. 

Emily  arose  with  her.  "  You  must  not  take  it 
hard  that  we  came  here  this  afternoon,"  she  said,  feel 
ing  very  uncomfortable.  "  But  Seth  and  Joe  brought 
the  news  home  at  dinner-time,  and  Olive  ran  around 
to  see  me  about  it,  and  we  agreed  that,  as  your  sisters, 
it  was  but  right  that  we  should  give  you  our  sympa 
thy  and  advice — and  I  am  sure,  Phemie,  if  there  is 
anything  we  can  do  to  help  you,  we  shall  be  happy 
to  offer  our  services.  We  are  really  very  sorry  for 
you!" 

"  You  are  good  to  say  that ! "  Phemie  gave  her  a 
cold  hand,  then  went  on  binding  up  her  luxuriant 
hair  in  nervous  haste.  "  Instead  of  being  wounded 
by  your  coming,  I  cannot  be  sufficiently  grateful  to 
you  for  preparing  me  to  meet  my  husband  as  I 
should ;  for  sparing  him  the  pain  of  telling  me  the 


PHEMIWS  TEMPTATION.  225 

sad   news.     It  is  sad   to  him.     He  has  never  been 
poor." 

"She  will  find  poverty  a  different  thing  now  that 
she  has  had  a  taste  of  wealth,"  said  Olive,  when  she 
and  Emily  were  in  the  street.  "  What  a  careless,  in 
different  wife  she  must  have  been,  never  to  have 
suspected  how  things  stood  !  Why,  if  Joe  has  the 
least  cloud  upon  his  face  when  he  comes  in,  I  give 
him  no  rest  until  I  find  out  ..what  it  is.  But  Phemie 
was  always  queer — always  wrapped  up  in  her  own  wild 
fancies' and  projects.  After  all,  Em  " — straightening 
her  roley-poley  figure,  and  walking  more  like  a 
pigeon  than  before — "  it  is  a  man's  wife  who  makes 
or  mars  him.  And" — meditatively — "I  was  par 
ticularly  struck  with  your  remark,  that  prosperity  is 
hurtful  to  some  people.  I  do  hope  that  poor  Phemie 
will  lay  it  to  heart." 

Instead  of  occupying  herself  with  this,  or  cognate 
scraps  of  morality,  the  spoiled  child  of  prosperity  sat 
at  her  front  parlor  window,  watching  for  her  hus 
band,  forgetful  of  pain,  of  faintness,  of  his  coldness 
and  infidelity ;  remembering  only  how  she  had  loved 
him,  and  longing  from  the  overflowing,  aching  depths 
of  that  love,  to  comfort  him  in  the  great  trouble  that 
had  befallen  him.  At  the  stern  blast  of  Adversity, 
the  weaknesses,  vanities,  and  failings  that  had  gath 
ered  about  his  better  self,  had,  for  her,  fallen  away, 
and,  dignified  by  sorrow,  he  stood  forth,  once  more, 
a  man  to  whom  she  owed  both  duty  and  affection, 
and  who  should  have  them  from  her  without  stint. 
She  had  not  dreamed  BO  happily  since  the  night  she 
10* 


226  PHEMIE'S  TEMPTATION. 

had  laid  her  book  upon  his  knee,  Baying,  "  A  gift  for 
you,  my  husband ! "  as  she  now  did  within  the  hour 
in  which  she  had  been  told  that  he  was  a  bankrupt. 

They  were  young  and  strong.  The  world  was  be 
fore  them,  and  they  would  work  together.  He  would 
let  her  help  him,  now,  if  not  by  writing  tales  and 
essays,  in  some  more  modest  way.  She  could  keep 
books,  or  copy  deeds,  or  be  his  saleswoman  behind 
the  counter  of  some  unpretending  little  shop,  with  a 
back  parlor,  where  they  could  sit  in  the  evening  and 
read,  or  talk,  or  write,  in  company,  and  three  snug 
chambers  overhead.  She  had  seen  such  dozens  of 
times,  and  known  people  who  were  very  happy  in 
them.  After  the  smart  of  mortification  was  over, 
she  could  win  Robert  around  to  her  way  of  viewing 
this. 

If  he  would  but  come  !  She  pictured  him  to  her 
self  lagging  homeward,  his  hat  slouched  over  his 
brows,  frenzied  by  defeat,  and  shrinking  from  com 
munication  with  his  late  associates — fearing  most  of 
all  the  task  of  unfolding  his  story  to  her.  Her  heart 
bled  until  she  sobbed  outright  at  thought  of  the 
suppressed  agony — suppressed  lest  she  should  suffer 
while  it  was  yet  in  his  power  to  shield  her  from 
knowing  the  worst — that  had  impelled  him  to  affect 
harshness  the  night  before.  She  struck  her  breast 
hard  with  her  clenched  hand  in  recalling  her  mad  re 
crimination — her  unwomanly  revenge. 

If  he  would  but  come !  She  longed  to  kneel  to 
him,  and  pray  for  forgiveness ;  to  make  of  her  affec 
tion  a  bulwark  that  should  break  the  force  of  the 


PREMIERS  TEMPTATION.  227 

assaults  he  must  sustain  from  the  rebuffs  of  fickle 
friends ;  the  ingratitude  of  those  whose  benefactor  he 
had  been ;  the  mean  triumph  of  those  who  had  envied 
him  in  his  palmy  days.  She  could  show  him  how 
utterly  beneath  his  regard  were  these  reptiles ;  how 
impotent  to  mar  the  quiet  beauty  of  their  new  life 
and  their  first  real  home.  She  would  tell  him  more 
— tell  him  all  her  hopes  for  the  future  and  for  that 
home — and  her  cheek  glowed  with  bride-like  roses  at 
thought  of  the  well  of  consolation  of  which  she  held 
the  key. 

If  he  would  but  come !  The  inclement  heavens 
had  glowered  at  sunset  with  a  dull  red  that  was 
fierceness,  not  promise,  and  quickly  burned  itself  out 
into  dingy  gray.  Thte  pavements  were  still  icy  in 
patches  after  the  sleet  of  yesterday,  and  there  would 
be  more  by  to-morrow.  The  moon  was  not  up,  yet, 
or  the  low-hanging  clouds  would  not  grow  dark  so 
fast,  yet  few  street-lamps  were  lighted.  She  rejoiced 
when  the  one  nearest  their  door  flamed  up — a  clear, 
steady  jet  that  showed  her  distinctly  the  figure  of 
every  passer-by.  Through  the  boding  hush  of  the 
near  storm,  the  tramp  of  coining  and  going  feet  was 
like  the  fall  of  heavy  rain-drops,  but  they  tantalized, 
instead  of  lulling  the  listener.  Men  and  women, 
arm-in-arm,  beggar-children  with  baskets,  merry  boys 
that  whistled  as  they  strolled,  and  rattled  sticks  along 
area-rails,  the  solitary  figure  of  a  woman,  stealing 
close  to  the  same  rails,  her  slip-shod  shoes  flapping 
upon  the  side-walk,  and  her  thin  shawl  wrapped 
tightly  about  her,  vain  protection  against  the  wind 


228  PHEMIE'S  TEMPTATION. 

that  fluttered  her  scanty  garments ;  then  more 
men — short,  tall,  and  middle-sized — and  still  no 
sign  of  the  one  for  whom  those  eager  eyes  were 
strained. 

At  length  an  organ  -grinder,  in  a  last  endeavor  to 
retrieve  an  unlucky  day,  or  tired  of  carrying  his 
square  music-machine,  and  desirous,  like  a  sharp 
practitioner,  to  make  his  enforced  rest  a  means  of 
profit,  or  beguiled  by  the  sight  of  the  figure  outlined 
against  the  damask  curtains  into  the  belief  that  he 
had  found  a  tractable  listener,  halted  just  beneath 
her  and  began  to  play.  The  instrument  was  shrill 
and  wheezy ;  the  high  notes  were  wiry,  and  the  low 
ones  a  husky  grunt,  and  the  time  was  execrable,  but 
the  air  ran^  in  her  ears  like  the  lament  of  her  vearn- 

O  v 

ing  spirit ;  haunted  her  for  years  afterwards.  "Rob 
ert!  Robert!  toi  quefaime  !  toi  quefaime!"  She 
had  sung  it  to  him  the  evening  of  their  betrothal — 
because  he  asked  it.  She  raised  the  \vindow,  flung 
the  man  some  money,  and  ordered. him  in  pantomime 
to  go.  What  chance  sent  him  hither  with  that  wail 
ing  strain  ?  Was  not  waiting  already  anguish  ? 
Would  he  never  come?  An  alert  figure  passed 
under  the  window,  ran  up  the  steps  and  rang  the  bell. 
The  servant,  also  on  the  alert,  opened  the  door,  re 
ceived  a  letter  from  the  messenger,  and  brought  it  to 
his  mistress. 

She  tore  it  open  beneath  the  chandelier  in  the  back 
parlor.  That  in  the  front  room  had  remained  nn- 
lighted,  that  she  might  see  who  came  and  went  in 
the  outer  darkness. 


PHEMIE'S  TEMPTATION.  229 

"When  you  read  this,"  said  the  letter,  "I  shall 
be  upon  the  ocean.  I  knew  this  when  I  promised 
you,  last  night,  not  to  clog  your  progress  in  time  to 
come.  It  was  a  settled  purpose  before  you  sent  me 
the  billet  you  had  treasured  for  a  year  to  hurl  at  me 
when  I  should  be  most  defenceless — most  at  your 
mercy.  It  may  lessen  your  compunction  to  learn 
this,  should  you  ever  feel  remorseful.  Ere  this,  you 
may  have  heard  that  I  am  a  ruined  man.  Like  many 
a  wiser  and  richer  man,  I  have  trusted  too  mucli  to 
another,  and  he  has  abused  my  confidence.  Ma] lory 
is  a  villain,  and  I  have  told  him  so,  but  this  will  not 
restore  a  tarnished  name,  or  bring  back  lost  wealth. 
I  do  not  take  you  with  me  in  my  flight  from  a  land 
that  is  now  odious  to  me,  for  two  reasons.  The  first 
is,  I  have  interpreted  correctly  the  signs  that  indicate 
your  weariness  of  the  bond  that  unites  our  names — 
not  our  hearts.  The  second  is  that  I  have  no  longer 
money  and  position  to -offer  you,  and,  without  these, 
I  am  not  worth  your  acceptance.  Bear  me  witness, 
that  you  have  had — while  it  was  mine  to  give — the 
price  for  which  you  sold  your  liberty  and  your  per 
son.  Heart  and  mind  were  never  mine. 

"  You  are  free  once  more.  I  trust  you  will  soon  be 
independent  pecuniarily,  also.  Your  publisher,  Mr. 
Mallory,  ought  to  have  a  considerable  sum  in  his 
hands,  accruing  from  the  sale  of  your  works.  I  have 
never  questioned  him  as  to  sales  and  profits,  sup 
posing  that  you  would  resent  my  interference  in  your 
affairs.  He  should  have  secured  this  to  you,  unless 
you  have  drawn  the  amount,  which  is  very  possible. 


230  PIIEMIE'S  TEMPTATION. 

If  I  could  provide  for  your  maintenance,  I  would  do 
it.  As  it  is,  I*  have  not  a  dollar  I  can  call  my  own. 
I  do  not  caution  you  against  useless  regrets  at  my 
departure.  You  are  too  sensible  to  waste  time  in 
lamentations  over  what  cannot  be  helped  ;  nor  do  I 
flatter  myself  that  you  would  hinder  my  going  if  you 
could. 

"  Again,  you  are  free  1  I  am  sorry  I  ever  enslaved 
you — put  even  a  temporary  check  upon  your  individu 
ality.  The  world  will  say  that  I  have  fled  the  country 
because  I  dared  not  face  my  furious  creditors.  You 
will  know  that  the  fear  of  their  wrath  is  but  a  minor 
thong  in  the  whip  that  has  driven  me  into  exile. 

"  ROBERT  HAKT." 

"  My  child ! "  Pheraie  looked  up  from  the  page 
that  had  changed  her  to  stone.  She  saw  eyes  that 
would  have  been  keen  but  for  the  tears  that  brimmed 
them,  a  plain,  elderly  visage,  motherly  in  earnest  love 
and  compassion,  arms  that  were  outstretched  to  sup 
port  her  as  she  tottered  forward. 

"  My  only  friend  ! "  she  said,  and,  for  the  first  and 
only  time  in  her  life,  fainted. 


CHAPTER  XII. 


SENT  for  you,  Mr.  Bonney,"  said  Miss  Dar- 
cy,  meeting  Joe  on  the  threshold  of  her  office 
with  a  grave,  but  hearty  shake  of  the  hand. 
"  because  1  knew  I  should  attract  the  atten 
tion  of  your  clerks  and  partner  if  I  went  to 
your  store,  and  perhaps  interfere  with  the  routine  of 
your  business.  If  I  had  gone  to  your  house,  you  would 
have  been  subjected  to  perplexing  inquiries,  and  my 
errand  to  you  is  confidential.  I  hope  I  have  not  put 
you  to  serious  inconvenience  by  my  request." 

"Not  at  all,"  answered  Joe,  accepting  the  chair 
she  pointed  out  to  him,  as  he  would  have  obeyed  a 
gentlemanly  dentist's  wave  into  "  that  seat,  if  you 
please,  my  dear  sir.  Now,  we  will  soon  have  that  very 
troublesome  tooth  out."  Joe  was  horribly  afraid  of 
Miss  Darcy,  and  widely  at  sea  as  to  the  nature  of  her 
business  with  him.  He  hoped  forlornly  it  was  nothing 
worse  than  to  solicit  a  subscription  for  an  "  Indigent, 
Respectable  Aged  Woman's  Home,"  to  be  located  at 
Fezzan,  or  a  Magdalen  Asylum  in  Beloochistan.  He 
had  tucked  a  fifty  dollar  bill  into  his  pocket-book 


232  PHEMIE'S  TEMPTATION. 

prior  to  leaving  the  store,  and  was  prepared  to  sur 
render  it  at,  or  without  discretion.  It  was  worth 
seeing  the  alteration  in  his  manner  and  countenance 
at  her  next  words. 

"  I  want  to  talk  with  you  about  Phemie." 

Joe  ceased  his  restless  manipulation  of  his  hat-brim, 
and  his  eyes,  retiring  perceptibly  into  their  sockets, 
steadied  themselves  upon  Miss  Darcy's.  Phemie's 
name  was  a  touchstone  that  brought  him  out  always 
in  his  best  colors. 

"  Before  we  enter  regularly  upon  the  subject  I  wish 
to  .consult  you  about,"  continued  Miss  Darcy,  "let  me 
exculpate  her  from  the  charge  of  ungraciousness  in 
that  she  declined  the  invitations  of  her  sisters  to  spend 
some  days  with  each  of  them." 

The  good  woman  could  not  restrain  a  slight  em 
phasis  upon  the  term  named  for  the  visit,  and  Joe, 
already  tender  on  this  head,  noted  it. 

"  She  is  welcome  to  a  home  in  my  house  as  long 
as  she  lives!"  he  said,  stoutly.  "It  is  only  fair. 
Didn't  she  support  the  whole  family  for  five  years  ? 
We  can't  do  too  much  for  her." 

"  "Well  said  ! "  Miss  Darcy  nodded  approval.  "  She 
knows  how  kindly  are  your  feelings  toward  her.  But 
the  independence  that  led  her  to  work  in  her  early 
life  forbids  her  now  to  live  upon  the  charity  of  others 
— even  her  relatives.  She  asked  me,  the  evening 
after  the  failure,  before  her  sisters  had  heard  that  she 
was  deserted — to  hire  her  a  room  in  this  house.  I  did 
it  the  next  day.  She  believed  then,  and  I  hoped  that 
there  would  be  some  meagre  provision  for  her  out  of 


PHEMIE'S  TEMPTATION.  233 

the  wreck.  I  have  insisted  upon  an  examination  of 
Hart's  affairs,  and  paid  a  lawyer  to  institute  this..  I 
conld  have  saved  the  fee  and  learned  what  I  wanted 
to  know,  in  half  the  time,  by  inspecting  the  accounts 
of  the  firm  myself — but  of  course,  a  great,  noble  lord 
of  creation,  like  Mallory,  would  not  allow  a  woman 
to  lay  her  profaning  fingers  upon  his  ledgers  and 
.bank-books.  The  upshot  of  the  matter  is" — seeing 
Joe  finger  his  hat-brim  and  look  uneasy  at  this  ful- 
mination  of  a  strong-minded  woman's  indignation — 

o  o 

"  that,  what  with  Hart's  extravagance  and  Mallory's 
peculations  and  settlements  upon  his  wife — to  say 
nothing  of  the  neat  sum  which,  the  senior  partner 
says,  was  carried  off  by  the  junior  when  he  absconded 
— between  the  two  worthies,  Phemie  is  as  poor  in 
pocket  as  when  she  married,  and  poorer  in  everything 
else  excepting  Christian  patience  and  heroism.  She  has 
not  a  baubee  to  show  for  the  books  published  by  the 
precious  concern.  She  never  put  forward  any  claim 
for  her  share  of  the  profits  of  the-  second  of  these, 
although  a  fair  percentage  was  promised  by  the  con 
tract  to  the  author  under  her  assumed  name.  I  looked 
to  that  when  I  arranged  for  the  publication  of  the 
volume.  Her  husband  disapproved  of  her  presump 
tion  in  writing  a  book  that  showed  to  the  world  how 
much  more  sense  she  had  than  was  possessed  by  him, 
and  she  was  withheld  by  fear  of  his  displeasure,  from 
inquiring  into  the  pecuniary  result  of  the  venture. 
This  is  her  version  of  the  affair — only  I  have  put  it 
more  strongly  than  she  does.  She  finds  excuses  for 
Hart  at  every  turn. 


234  PREMIERS  TEMPTATION. 

"  Between  you  and  me,  Mr.  Bonney,  the  partners 
pocketed  a  pretty  little  fortune  from  the  sale  of  the 
book,  and  shared  it  between  them.  Mallory  pays  it 
went  into  the  general  business,  and  the  business  went 
to  destruction.  I  know  who  ought  to  be  sent  after  it 
— but  there  is  no  use  in  flying  into  a  passion,  even 
over  such  barefaced  villany  as  this." 

"  But,"  interrupted  Joe,  eagerly,  "  the  firm  has 
assets.  We  can  sue  for  the  amount  due  her,  and 
possibly  recover  something.  I'll  pay  the  costs  of  the 
suit  twice  over  rather  than  they  should  not  be  prose 
cuted,  and  this  shameful  business  made  public.  And 
there  was  a  contract,  you  say  2  " 

"  Yes — one  party  to  which  is  represented  by  a  fic 
titious  name.  To  be  sure,  it  has  been  expressly  stated 
that  a  certain  percentage  upon  each  copy  sold  is  to 
be  paid  to  the  author,  whose  signature  is  'Epsilon,' 
and  I  could  testify  that  Euphemia  Hart  is  that  per 
son.  But" — eyes  bright"  and  nostrils  dilating  — 
"  whom  does  she  prosecute  ?  Her  husband,  as  one 
of  the  firm,  who  defrauded  her.  And,  if  he  were  not 
concerned  in  any  manner  in  the  iniquitous  transac 
tion,  she  could  not  sue  the  authors  of  the  injury. 
The  prosecution  must  originate  with  him.  In  this 
Christian  land  of  light  and  liberty,  a  married  woman 
owns  nothing  unless  it  is  secured  to  her  by  a  mar 
riage  contract,  or  bequeathed  to  her  by  will — and 
then  it  must  be  put  into  the  hands  of  trustees  to  use 
for  her — poor  idiot !  or  settled  upon  her  by  her  legal 
custodian.  Except  in  these  cases,  all  that  she  has  and 
all  she  earns  belongs  absolutely  and  entirely  to  her 


PREMIE'S  TEMPTATION.  235 

husband.  She  may  go  out  washing  by  the  day,  and 
bring  home  a  dollar  at  night  to  buy  bread  for  her 
children,  and  he — the  glorious  creature,  who  has  lain 
upon  the  floor  all  day  befuddling  his  god-like  com 
prehension  with  drink — may  knock  her  down,  and 
take  the  dollar  away,  further  to  befuddle  his  manly 
senses — and  all  the  law  in  the  country  can't  prevent 
the  robber}'.  Can't  prevent  it !  Wouldn't  prevent 
it,  I  should  say,  for  men  make  the  laws.  Mr.  Hart 
should  bring  a  suit  against  those  who  have  ploughed 
with  his  heifer,  and  kept  back  her  hire  from  his 
lordly  palm  ;  but  when  the  unrighteous  husbandmen 
are  the  respectable  firm  of  Mallory  &  Hart,  the  com 
plication  is  more  than  discouraging.  It  is  simply 
and  ludicrously  hopeless  !  " 

"  Good  gracious ! "  ejaculated  Joe,  rubbing  his 
palms  together  with  an  air  the  reverse  of  lordly. 

As  this  overwhelming  woman  stated  the  case,  it 
soimded  like  an  enormity  that  nearly  stunned  him. 
While  he  listened,  he  was  so  ashamed  of  being  a 
man,  that  he  seriously  meditated  an  apology  for  a 
circumstance  he  thought  he  might  truthfully  imply 
was  entirely  beyond  his  control. 

"  Therefore " — Miss  Darcy  told  off  the  steps  of 
her  narrative  by  successive  taps  of  her  long  forefinger 
upon  the  oaken  desk — "  Phemie  has  no  property  be 
yond  her  personal  effects,  namely,  her  wardrobe  and 
her  jewelry.  Even  the  plate — including  the  few 
articles  of  silver  given  by  her  uncles  and  brothers-in- 
law  at  her  marriage,  and  which  are  marked  '  Hart,' 
like  the  rest,  must  go  to  pay  the  debts  of  Mallory  & 


236  PHEMIE'S  TEMPTATION. 

Hart.  Hart  was  very  fond  of  presenting  her  with 
solid  silver  epergnes,  coffee-urns,  and  the  like,  from 
which  he  could  regale  his  friends  at  their  carousals 
— but  he  was  careful  to  exact  her  thanks  for  these, 
and  equally  careful  that  they  should  not  be  marked 
with  her  name.  '  Hart '  lias  a  more  aristocratic,  oli 
garchical  sound — and  the  married  state  is  an  absolute 
monarchy.  Excuse  me  again.  My  tongue  and  tem 
per  are  yoked  together  to-day,  and  occasionally  jerk 
the  reins  away  from  my  judgment. 

"  Phemie,  then,  is  without  property  and  without 
expectations,  excepting  the  humble  expectation  of 
those  who  wait  upon  the  Lord,  and  do  not  put  their 
trust  in  man.  Her  wardrobe  is  valuable — that  is,  it 
cost  an  absurd  sum.  Hart  was  fastidious  about  his 
wife's  dress,  as  he  was  about  his  plate  and  furniture. 
But  what  dealer  in  second-hand  clothing  will  give  a 
tenth  of  its  real  value  ?  I  happen  to  know  a  reason 
ably  honest  Jewess  who  is  in  that  business.  I  be 
came  acquainted  with  her  several  years  ago,  when 
she  was  much  poorer  than  she  is  now,  and  had  typhoid 
fever  in  her  family.  She  has  a  heart,  and  she  is  over- 
grateful  for  the  trifling  services  I  rendered  her  at  that 
time.  She  will  dispose  of  Phemie's  useless  dresses 
and  the  like.  Now  comes  the  question  of  the  jew 
elry.  I  have  an  excellent  memory,  Mr.  Bonney,  and 
it  is  surprising  how  useful  I  find  bits  of  information 
I  have  picked  up  and  treasured  from  time  to  time, 
without  an  idea  how  they  could  ever  be  of  service  to 
me  or  my  friends.  I  recollect  you  said  once  in  my 
hearing,  that  "VVaddell,  the  jeweller,  was  your  uncle 


PREMIE'S  TEMPTATION.  237 

bj  marriage.  Will  he,  do  you  think,  appraise  such 
articles  as  Euphemia  wishes  to  dispose  of,  and  tell  us 
how  and  where  we  ought  to  offer  them  for  sale  ? " 

"I  will  ask  him.  I  am  sure  he  will  do  it.  He  is 
one  of  the  kindest  men  in  the  world,"  returned  Joe. 
"And — and — I  don't  mean  to  be  officious — but  my 
wife  has  often  told  me  that  her  sister  had  a  quantity 
of  elegant  laces — more  than  she  could  ever  wear.  I 
was  thinking,  if  she  has  any  that  can  be  ironed  out, 
that  are  not  soiled,  or  that  can  be  fixed  up  by  these 
French  women  that  do  such  things,  you  know,  I'll 
put  them  into  my  store  and  sell  them  for  her  at  such 
a  price  as  she  couldn't  get  in  a  second-hand  establish 
ment." 

"A  good  idea!  "  Miss  Darcy  nodded  again,  with 
the  compunctious  admission  to  herself  that  even  a 
weak  man  might  say  a  sensible  thing  once  in  a  life 
time.  "  I'll  mention  it  to  Phemie.  The  suggestion 
is  a  valuable  one,  for  every  dollar  is  worth  fully  a 
hundred  cents  to  her  just  now.  This  brings  me" — 
checking  otf  another  section  of  the  desk-lid — "  to  the 
main  proposal  I  have  to  offer  for  your  consideration. 
The  book  trade  arid  magazine  writing  are  stagnant  at 
present.  Everything  has  risen  in  market  value  ex 
cept  brains.  Booksellers  and  the  proprietors  of  peri 
odicals — even  those  that  pay  expenses — are  afraid  of 
taking  on  more  sail.  Moreover  Phemie  must  get  to 
work  immediately,  or  her  means  will  be  exhausted. 
Can  she  obtain  a  set  of  books  to  write  up — account- 
books,  I  mean,  or  copying  of  any  kind — do  you  think  ? 
There  are  reasons" — the  practical  woman  colored,  in 


238  PREMIE'S  TEMPTATION. 

approaching  a  delicate  subject — "  why  she  should  not 
take  a  regular  situation  in  a  store  for  some  months  to 

O 

come.  I  mention  this  in  strict  confidence,  Mr.  Bon- 
ney.  You  are  a  family  man,  and  I  can  speak  freely 
to  you  of  what  nobody  besides  Phemie  and  myself 
knows." 

Joe  was  a  bashful  man,  but  he  did  not  blush.  His 
sanguine  complexion  faded  into  a  bluish-white ;  his 
hat  fell  from  his  hold,  and  he  did  not  stoop  to  pick  it 
up  as  it  rolled  away  on  the  floor.  "  You  don't  tell 
me  so ! "  he  said,  in  a  whisper  of  horror  and  pity. 
"  Poor  Phemie  !  poor  girl !  " 

Then  his  head  went  down  upon  his  hands,  and 
Miss  Darcy  was  more  conscience-smitten  than  ever  at 
thought  of  her  former  valuation  of  the  warm-hearted, 
right-minded  brother-in-law.  She  looked  over  a  pile 
of  letters  on  her  desk,  while  he  recovered  himself; 
but  it  is  to  be  questioned  whether  her  eyes  were  much 
clearer  than  those  that  had  a  red  binding  about  their 
lids,  when  Joe  raised  his  face  and  cleared  his  throat 

"  I  suppose  you  despise  me ! "  he  said,  deprecat- 
ingly,  "  but  you  took  me  all  aback  by  what  you  said. 
When  I  think  of  my  own  baby,  and  how  much  she 
has  always  loved  him,  and  how  she  would  love  one 
of  her  own,  and  how  I  am  wrapped  up  in  mine,  I 
can't  help  grieving  over  her ;  and  if  that  rascally 
runaway  were  here,  I  would  break  his  head  for  him, 
so  I  would !  "  thumping  his  knee,  with  a  gleam  of 
the  Tight  eyes  that  was  quite  ferocious,  and  which 
greatly  increased  Miss  Darcy's  new-born  respect  for 
him. 


PHEMIE'S  TEJfTTATION.  239 

"  I  believe  you  would.  Both  feelings  do  you 
honor  !  "  she  said,  heartily.  "  I  only  wish  he  were 
here  long  enough  for  you  to  carry  your  excellent  in 
tentions  into  execution.  Since  he  is  not,  we  must 
do  the  next  best  thing,  and  help  his  deserted  wife. 
When  the  warm  weather  comes,  I  shall  take  her  to 
my  brother's  form,  and  keep  her  there  until— after 
September.  Meanwhile,  the  kindest  office  we  can 
render  is  to  procure  work  for  her." 

"  I  can  give  her  a  job  of  writing  right  oft* — a  set  of 
accounts  of  my  own,"  said  Joe.  "  I  have  an  interest 
in  another  business  outside  of  my  store — a  secretaiy- 
ship — and  I  have  been  in  the  habit  of  writing  out  my 
reports  in  full  in  the  evening.  I  shall  be  glad  to  get 
rid  of  the  bother,  and  more  glad  to  give  her  a  start. 
It  isn't  much,  but  it  may  do  for  a  beginning.  I  will 
be  on  the  lookout  for  more,  too,  you  know.  And  her 
room  rent,  Miss  Darcy  ?  By  the  way,  what  sort  of  a 
room  has  she  got  ?  " 

"  A  very  comfortable  one." 

"  But  not  what  she  has  been  used  to,  eh  ? " 

"  She  could  not  obtain  that  in  a  boarding-house  of 
this  class,"  said  Miss  Darcy,  gravely. 

She  did  not  intimate  that  the  nominal  rent  to  Phe- 
mie  was  lower  than  other  apartments  of  the  same 
size  and  situation  in  the  establishment  brought,  and 
that  this  difference  in  favor  of  the  new  lodger  was  the 
consequence  of  a  private  arrangement  between  her 
self — Miss  Darcy — and  the  landlady. 

"  True !     It  is  comfortable,  you  say  ? " 

"  It  is,  and  of  fair  dimensions." 


240  PREMIE'S  TEMPTATION. 

"  I'll  be  responsible  for  the  rent — will  send  it  to 
her,  anonymously,"  said  Joe,  forgetful,  in  his  affec 
tionate  zeal,  of  the  ill  fate  of  a  former  anonymous 
gift.  "  Don't  let  her  ever  suspect  who  it  is  from, 
please.  She  is  proud — and  I  don't  know  anybody 
who  has  more  to  be  proud  of.  Where  is  she  to-day?" 

"Gone  to  finish  her  packing  at  the  house.  The 
auction  comes  off  to-morrow.  I  offered  to  help  her, 
but  she  preferred  to  be  alone.  It  must  be  a  sad  task, 
and  there  is  no  one  beside  herself  on  the  place.  The 
servants  were  dismissed  a  fortnight  ago — the  day 
after  the  failure,  in  fact.  Phemie  had  money  enough 
by  her  to  pay  their  wages  and  ten  dollars  over.  Be 
fore  I  knew  of  it,  she  had  sold  a  ruby  pin  and  brace 
let  to  get  more  for  her  first  month's  board  here." 

Joe  went  several  blocks  aside  from  his  direct  route 
back  to  the  store,  that  he  might  pass  the  house  lately 
inhabitecTby  the  Harts.  He  had  some  vague  notion 
of  protecting  the  solitary  inmate  by  so  doing  ;  a 
prompting  to  hover  near  her  unseen,  and  avert  pos 
sible  hurt  or  alarm,  which  the  fairest  of  guardian 
angels  need  not  have  been  ashamed  to  nurse  in  his 
bosom.  The  shutters  were  closed  on  the  first  floor, 
those  of  the  upper  front  chamber  open.  He  pictured 
her  in  there,  bending  tearfully  over  drawers,  and 
trunks,  and  jewel-cases,  and  longed,  with  a  strange, 
pathetic  heartache  for  the  power  and  right  to  say  to 
her,  "  Select  whatever  you  want,  Phemie,  as  a  keep 
sake  from  your  devoted  brother  !  " 

"  It's  worship,  that's  what  it  is ! "  he  had  said  to 
her,  years  before,  on  the  blustering  night  in  which  he 


PHEMIE'S  TEMPTATION.  241 

confessed  his  love.  His  wife  was  very  dear  to  him — 
much  better  suited  to  his  mental  and  physical  needs 
than  was  Phemie,  but  his  feeling  for  the  latter  par 
took  of  the  exaltation  and  fervor  of  worship  still. 
Great  hearts  and  great  minds  are  not  always  encased 
in  the  same  mortal  tenement.  It  may  be  well  for  the 
feeble-minded  that  the  blessed  doctrine  of  compensa 
tions  prevails  in  this,  as  in  most  Divine  ordinances. 

Had  great-hearted  Joe  looked  with  his  bodily  eyes 
into  that  upper  room,  he  would  have  seen  his  beloved 
wife — the  keeper  of  his  affections,  if  not  of  his  thoughts 
— seated  in  a  luxuriously  low  chair,  her  dumpy  feet 
crossed  upon  a  hassock  (she  was  easily  fatigued,  just 
now),  her  bonnet-strings  loosened,  and  her  eyes  round 
with  enjoyment  of  the  survey  of  her  sister's  occupa 
tion.  Wardrobes,  drawers,  and  closets  were  open  ; 
the  bed,  chairs,  bureau,  and  carpet  strewed  with  their 
late  contents.  Miss  Darcy  had  said  truly  that  Phe- 
mie's  was  a  costly  collection  of  wearing  apparel.  One 
large  box  was  intended  for  the  dealer jn  cast-off  cloth 
ing,  and  this  Olive  watched  most  intently.  By  a  sys 
tem  of  ratiocination  which  the  industrious  Oily,  the 
grateful  dependent  upon  her  sister's  earnings,  would 
have  scorned  to  pursue,  but  which  the  wife  of  the 
well-to-do  tradesman  considered  perfectly  justifiable, 
and,  indeed,  commendable  as  an  evidence  of  shrewd 
ness,  she  had  arrived  at  the  conclusion  that  the  arti 
cles  committed  to  this  must  be  intended  as  a  gift  to 
herself  and  Emily.  They  would  be  exceedingly  in 
appropriate  for  Phemie's  wear  after  all  that  had  hap 
pened.  Good  taste— and  Phemie's  taste  was  irre- 
11 


24:2  PHEMIE'S  TEMPTATION. 

proachable — demanded  that  her  dress  should  conform 
to  her  altered  circumstances.  As  the  deserted  wife  of 
a  dishonored  bankrupt  she  could  no  longer  sport  vel 
vets,  satins,  lace,  and  diamonds  without  outraging  the 
moral  decency  of  the  community.  Nor  was  it  likely 
that  she  would  lay  these  away  in  the  hope  of  brighter 
days.  They  would  be  injured  by  packing,  and  grow 
old-fashioned  and  useless.  What  was  more  natural 
than  to  assume  that  they  were  to  be  offered  for  her 
sisters'  acceptance  ?  the  sisters  who  had  been  first  to 
call  upon  her  in  her  affliction,  with  proffers  of  service 
and  counsel  ? 

By  way  of  making  the  tender  and  the  reception 
of  the  presents  less  awkward,  Olive  praised  every 
thing  lavishly.  "  It  beats  all,  the  care  you  have 
taken  of  your  dresses!"  she  exclaimed,  as  Phemie 
spread  a  ruby  silk  upon  the  bed,  preparatory  to  fold 
ing  the  skirt.  "  That  is  the  very  one  you  wore  the 
evening  Joe  and  I  called  upon  you  at  the  Lacroix, 
three — no,  two  years  since.  How  long  ago  it  seems  ! 
How  little  any  of  us  thought  then  what  was  before 
us !  I  was  telling  Jane,  the  other  night,  about  that 
dress,  trying  to  describe  the  color  and  the  way  it  was 
made.  It  was  very  becoming  to  you.  Any  shade  of 
red  suits  you  and  me.  Emily,  now,  looks  well  in  blue, 
and  purple,  and  mauve,  she  is  so  fair.  Joe  alwaj's 
insists  that  you  and  I  are  alike.  I'm  so  glad  I  hap 
pened  to  stop  this  morning  as  I  was  going  by  !  It 
flashed  across  me,  when  I  noticed  the  open  shutters, 
that  I  might  find  you  here,  so  I  rang  the  bell.  It 
would  have  been  doleful  for  you  to  overhaul  all  those 


PHEMIE' 8  TEMPTATION.  243 

drawers  and  closets  alone.  You  would  have  got  to 
thinking — and  thinking  is  the  worst  thing  you  could 
do,  just  now.  Emily  was  saying,  yesterday,  that  the 
wisest  course  for  you  to  pursue  would  be  to  begin  to 
live  for  other  people — to  forget  your  own  sorrows  in 
making  them  happy.  I  am  sure — if  it  will  comfort 
you  to  hear  me  say  so — we  have  felt  more  like  sisters 
toward  you — more,  as  we  did  in  the  dear  old  times — 
since  you  have  been  in  trouble,  than  we  have  done 
for  two  years  before.  It  was  Mr.  Hart's  influence, 
no  doubt,  but  you  seemed  to  hold  yourself  aloof  from 
us ;  to  Jeel  so  much  grander  than  we  poor,  modest 
people,  that  we  were  quite  overawed.  Mr.  Hart  was 
a  very  supercilious  man." 

"  I  cannot  bear  to  hear  my  husband  blamed,  Olive," 
said  Phemie,  gently.  "  I  have  never  felt  otherwise 
than  affectionately  toward  you  and  Emily,  whatever 
my  manner  has  been." 

"  Oh,  we  know  that !  and  I  don't  want  to  wound 
you  by  talking  about  Mr.  Hart.  I  told  Joe,  three 
days  ago,  that  Tie  was  a  subject  we  should  all  study  to 
avoid.  Albert  is  dreadfully  cast  down  about  this 
affair.  It's  lucky  he  was  made  assistant  tutor  in  the 
Institute  just  in  time  to  begin  to  support  himself. 
That  was  one  good  deed  of  Mr.  Hart's,  helping  to 
educate  him." 

"  He  did  many  kind  deeds,"  answered  the  wife,  in 
patient  mournfulness. 

"  Yes,  he  didn't  mind  spending  his  money  while  he 
had  it,"  assented  Olive,  amiably.  "  He  kept  you  like 
a  queen,  Phemie.  There  is  no  denying  that.  That's 


244  PREMIE'S  TEMPTATION. 

that  heavenly  amber  silk,  with  the  square  corsage.  I 
always  did  say  it  was  the  loveliest  thing  ever  made. 
And  that  black  silk  mantle !  It  is  a  pity  to  lay  that 
away.  Those  heavy  corded  silks  cut  so  badly  in  the 
folds.  I  remember  meeting  you  in  the  street  with 
that  on,  the  first  time  you  ever  wore  it.  When  I 
went  home,  I  said  to  Jane  that  I  had  seen  you  with 
the  handsomest  mantle  on  I  ever  beheld.  And,  said 
she,  '  Your  turn  will  come  one  day,  Mrs.  Bonney ! ' 
1  No ! '  said  I.  '  I  know  what  my  husband  can  afford, 
Jane.  I  should  like  to  dress  elegantly,  but  he  needs 
most  of  his  money  for  carrying  on  his  business,  and 
my  wants  must  be  moderate  until  his  ship  comes  in.' " 

"I  believed  that  my  husband  could  afford  to  dress 
me  as  he  liked,"  said  Phemie,  yet  more  patiently ; 
"  and  so  thought  he.  His  failure  was  not  his  fault." 

Olive  pursed  up  her  mouth  tightly,  and  looked  un 
utterable  wise  things.  But  she  was  too  politic  to  pro 
voke  Phemie  to  retraction  of  her  generous  intuitions ; 
for  Phemie  was  generous!  Witness  not  only  her 
years  of  service  in  behalf  of  her  family,  but  the  hand 
some  presents  she  had  made  little  Joe  since  her  return. 
She  had  left  little  for  the  parents  to  do  for  him  in  the 
way  of  clothing,  toys,  and  trinkets. 

"  My !  "  exclaimed  the  spectator,  as  Phemie  took 
from  a  box  the  black  velvet  robe  she  had  worn  to  the 
dinner  party.  "  That  is  magnificent !  When  did 
you  get  it?" 

"  I  bought  it  a  few  weeks  since.  It  has  been  worn 
only  once." 

"  Are  you  going  to  crowd  it  in  with  the  rest  ? 


PREMIER  TEMPTATION.  245 

"Won't  you  injure  the  pile?"  asked  Olive,  solicitous 
for  the  welfare  of  a  garment  so  easily  convertible  into 
the  cloak  she  had  "pined  for"  for  two  winters.  And 
there  was  lace  enough  on  it  to  trim  the  cloak  hand 
somely  !  But  what  if  it  was  intended  for  Emily  ? 
Emily,  who  had  a  span  new  fur  cloak,  and  whose 
husband  could  buy  Joe  out  three  times  over !  She 
made  a  bold  push  to  end  her  suspense. 

"  Phemie,  dear !  you  won't  have  occasion  to  wear 
that  for  years  to  come." 

"  I  shall  never  put  it  on  again." 

"  That  was  what  I  was  saying  to  myself;  and  it 
will  be  ruined  if  you  lay  it  by.  I  tell  you  what  I 
will  do !  I  want  a  velvet  cloak.  I  never  wanted 
anything  so  badly,  before.  It  is  the  height  of  my 
ambition  in  dress.  I  could  have  one  made  out  of 
that  with  a  little  contriving.  I'll  buy  it  of  you, 
rather  than  have  it  spoiled  by  being  crushed  into  a 
trunk  with  other  things.  I  cannot  aiford  it  very  well, 
it  is  true,  but  I  must  try  and  manage  it." 

"  If  you  want  it,  you  shall  have  it  certainly,  Olive. 
1  do  not  know  what  I  ought  to  charge  for  it,  but  you 
can  inquire  of  some  one  versed  in  such  things.  I  am 
obliged  to  dispose  of  all  these  dresses,  etc. ;  and  if 
there  is  any  article  to  which  you  have  taken  a  fancy, 
you  may  as  well  have  it  as  somebody  else." 

She  was  very  busy  disentangling  something  from 
the  black  lace  surrounding  the  sleeve,  and  did  not 
mark  the  fall  of  the  listener's  countenance.  The 
"  something  "  was  a  faded  spray  of  heliotrope,  caught 
in  the  heavy  pattern  of  the  lace-work.  She  had  car- 


246  PREMIERS  TEMPTATION. 

ried  it  there  unobserved  by  herself  from  the  time  it 
had  dropped  from  her  fingers  in  Robert's  dressing- 
room  on  the  birth-night.  Turning  her  back  to  Olive, 
she  took  a  small  box  from  the  bureau,  put  the  dried 
flower  within  it,  and  set  it  aside  with  such  things  as 
she  had  reserved  for  her  own  use. 

Olive  was  "  unprepared  to  make  any  direct  oifer 
for  the  dress.  She  must  talk  the  matter  over  with 
Joe.  She  never  did  anything  without  consulting 
him.  She  had  made  up  her  mind  when  she  married, 
and  at  sundry  times,  and  in  divers  places,  informed 
her  mother,  sister,  husband,  and  the  incomparable 
Jane,  of  her  praiseworthy  resolution,  never  to  take 
any  decided  step — not  even  to  purchase  a  paper  of 
pins,  unless  she  were  sure  of  her  dear  husband's  ap 
proval.  She  thought,  nay,  she  was  positive,  that 
was  one  reason  of  his  uniform  success  in  life.  She 
worked  with,  not  against  him.  She  had  her  reward 
in  his  unvarying  kindness  and  indulgence.  He 
would  give  her  anything  it  was  prudent  to  buy  for 
her.  What  he  couldn't  afford,  he  had  repeatedly 
said,  he  had  no  right  to  give.  She  had  heard  him 
remark  a  thousand  times,  that  a  man  ought  to  be 
just  before  he  was  generous." 

He  seemed  to  consider  it  both  just  and  generous 
that  she  should  have  the  dress  she  coveted,  when  she 
told  him  the  story  at  night  of  Phemie's  cupidity  and 
her  disappointment. 

"  I  wouldn't  have  believed  that  she  could  have 
grown  so  stingy,"  she  said,  regretfully,  over  her  sis 
ter's  deterioration  in  generous  virtues.  "Why.  I 


PREMIERS  TEMPTATION.  247 

remember  the  time  when  she  would  go  without  a 
new  dress  or  hat  a  whole  winter  to  let  me  have  one 
instead.  That  is  the  misfortune  of  being  rich  even 
for  a  few  years.  It  hardens  and  closes  one's  heart. 
I  am  not  rich,  but  I  wouldn't  be  so  mean  as  to  offer 
to  sell  my  own  sister  a  dress  I  had  no  use  for..  And 
there  were  at  least  a  dozen  white  wrappers — nain 
sook,  and  cambric,  and  linen-lawn,  all  trimmed  with 
lace  and  muslin  embroidery,  yards  upon  yards  of  it, 
and,  although  she  might  know  how  beautifully  they 
would  makeover  for  an  infant's  outfit,  and  I  took  pains 
to  drop  a  hint  that  Joey  had  worn  his  long  dresses  so 
much  that  I  must  get  new  ones  for  the  next,  she 
never  offered  me  one." 

"  From  all  I  can  hear,  she  will  be  obliged  to  sell 
everything  she  can  spare  in  order  to  live,"  said  Joe, 
apologetically  for  parsimonious  Phemie.  "  But  you 
shall  have  whatever  you  want,  Olive — anything  of 
hers,  I  mean.  I  intended  to  give  you  a  velvet  cloak 
before  long:  If  Phemie  is  disposed  to  part  with  the 
dress  you  speak  of,  you  can  offer  her  a  hundred  dol 
lars  for  it,  or  as  much  more  as  it  is  worth.  You  are 
a  good,  economical  wife,  and  deserve  a  present.  You 
had  better  take  your  pick  of  the  silk  dresses,  too. 
And  you  said  something  about  a  black  silk  mantle, 
didn't  you?  As  to  the  white  wrappers,  I  wouldn't 
speak  to  her  about  them.  No.  2  shall  have  all  he,  or 
she,  wants  out  of  the  store.  Don't  buy  second-hand 
goods  for  that  purpose." 

"You  dear,  blessed  husband!  "  Olive  actually  blub 
bered,  in  kissing  her  rapturous  thanks.  "  But,  my 


24:8 


PREMIERS  TEMPTATION. 


precious,  how  can  you  afford  to  give  me  all  these 
lovely  things  ?     You  must  have  had  a  streak  of  good 
fortune — made  a  lucky  investment  lately  ? " 
"  I  have ! "  said  Joe. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

HEMIE  went  to  the  Darcy  farm-house  early 
in  August,  to  be  served  and  tended  with 
exceeding  care  and  love  by  the  farmer  and 
his  dame,  and  there,  one  mid  September 
day,  her  babe  opened  great  brown  eyes, 
very  like  her  mother's,  upon  the  world  that  had  dealt 
so  hardly  by  that  parent. 

"  Poor,  fatherless  lamb  ! "  was  the  whisper  follow 
ing  the  blessing  breathed  over  her  by  the  deserted 
wife,  with  her  first  kiss  upon  the  velvet  cheek. 

A  sad  welcome — but  a  welcome,  nevertheless,  and 
from  the  hour  in  which  the  child  was  laid  within  her 
arms,  Phemie  began  to  recover  heart  and  strength  ; 
to  think,  not  hopefully,  but  courageously,  of  the  fu 
ture  and  its  labors,  now  that  she  had  something  for 
which  to  plan  and  work. 

"  You  call  her  « Ruth.'  For  whom  ?  "  asked  Al 
bert,  as  he  sat  one  day  with  her  in  the  quiet  sitting- 
room  devoted  to  her  use  by  her  considerate  hosts. 

He  had  passed  several  weeks  of  his  August  vaca 
tion  at  the  farm,  and  had  now  come  down  from   the 
11 


250  PHEHIE'S  TEMPTATION. 

Institute  to  stay  from  Friday  until  Monday,  with  the 
sister  he  loved  more  truly  than  ever  since  the  dark 
ness  of  adversity  had  overtaken  her.  Phemie  sat 
by  the  open  window  looking  out  toward  Gray  top 
Hill,  the  bald  brow  of  which  was  surrounded  by  an 
aureole  of  autumnal  foliage,  crimson  and-  yellow, 
while  the  stubble-fields  between  it  and  the  homestead 
were  steeped  in  October  sunshine.  Her  month-old 
baby  lay  upon  her  lap  asleep,  and  the  dreary  longing 
of  the  gaze  that  had  lingered  upon  the  spot  where 
Robert  Hart  had  broken  upon  her  maiden  musings 
with  his  love-story,  melted  into  a  tender  smile,  as  it 
passed  to  the  little  face  resting  upon  her  arm. 

"  It  is  Miss  Darcy's  name.  She  claims  ownership 
in  her,"  she  replied,  softly.  "  I  could  give  her  no 
more  loving  god-mother.  I  named  her  out  of  pure 
gratitude  and  affection,  and  was  hardly  prepared  for 
the  emotion  Miss  Darcy  displayed  when  she  heard  of 
it.  I  have  seen  the  tears  in  her  eyes  many  times  as 
she  fondled  baby,  and  I  believe  she  loves  her  better 
already  than  she  does  anything  else  in  the  world." 

"  I  can  hardly  imagine  Miss  Darcy  in  the  character 
of  baby-spoiler,"  laughed  Albert.  "  She  really  handles 
the  wee  lassie — did  you  say  ? " 

"  Most  tenderly.  She  was  not  very  skilful  for  a 
day  or  two,  but  she  is  apt  at  nursery-work  as  in 
everything  else,  and  baby  appreciates  the  improve 
ment.  She  was  called  up  to  town  by  telegraph,  day 
before  yesterday,  and  if  her  namesake  has  not  missed 
her,  mamma  has,"  drawing  the  tips  of  her  fingers 
lightly  down  the  pink  forehead.  "  It  isn't  every  little 


PHEMIE' S  TEMPTATION.  251 

girl  that  has  two  mothers  ! "  She  sighed  when  she 
had  said  it — a  suppressed  breath,  that  yet  caught  the 
blind  youth's  ear.  He  asked  no  more  questions  for 
awhile,  but  presently  exchanged  his  seat  for  his  sister's 
footstool,  laying  his  head  beside  •  Ruth's  upon  her 
knee. 

"I  should  not  murmur,"  resumed  Phemie,  more 
softly  still,  her  hand  wandering  from  her  infant's 
brow  to  Albert's  dark  curls.  There  was  a  wondrous 
variety  of  expressions  in  her  mute  caresses  ;  in  the 
silent  touch  of  her  fingers— the  clinging  stroke  that 
swept  the  forehead  or  cheek  of  the  beloved  one.  If 
she  were  not  a  true  woman,  those  who  enjoy  a  monop 
oly  of  sweetness,  softness,  and  lovingness  in  the  esti 
mation  of  their  respective  circles  of  admiration,  might 
earn  a  larger  meed  of  love  and  applause  by  studying 
certain  of  her  arts. 

"  I  ought  not  to  murmur !  "  she  repeated,  exerting 
herself  to  a  livelier  accent,  "  when  I  have  two  such 
children! " 

Albert  seized  her  hand  and  covered  it  with  kisses. 
"  I  cannot  endure  it,  Phemie ! "  with  a  gasp  that  was 
almost  a  sob.  "  You  told  me  once  that  the  Father 
ordered  everything  in  mercy  to  those  who  love  Him  ; 
but  your  experience  of  sorrow  has  come  near  to  mak 
ing  an  infidel  of  me.  You  worked  with  all  your 
might ;  denied  yourself  everything  but  the  bare  neces 
saries  of  existence,  that  you  might  maintain  those 
who  now,  in  their  prosperity,  overlook,  or  worse — 
patronize  you.  Emily  and  Olive — yes!  my  own 
mother,  make  me  blush  for  human  nature  and  woman- 


252  PHEMFE'8  TEMPTATION. 

hood  !  Your  life  has  been  a  continuous  sacrifice,  and 
where  is  your  reward  ?  I — for  whom  you  have  done 
more  than  for  all  the  rest — am  powerless  to  help  or 
comfort  you !  I  am  a  blind  clog,  dragging  at  your 
heels,  instead  of  -a  man,  strong  to  take  your  part 
against  the  world ;  to  supply  your  needs  ;  give  you  a 
home,  and  to  revenge  your  wrongs  upon  him  who  has 
brought  this  latest  misery  of  poverty  and  desolation 
upon  you !  Don't  talk  tome  of  the  wisdom  and  mercy 
of  the  Divine  economy  !  It  is  mockery  when  I  think 
of  you — your  toils,  your  patience,  and  your  suffering ! " 

"  If  this  life  were  all ! "  said  Phemie's  gentlest 
tones  in  his  ear,  as  he  shook  from  head  to  foot  with 
blended  rage  and  compassion,  and  the  sense"  of  the 
impotence  of  either  to  right  or  console  her.  " '  If  in 
this  life  only  we  have  hope,  then  are  we  of  all  men  most 
miserable.'  I  do  not  know  what  meaning  theologians 
attach  to  that  text,  but  it  often  abides  with  me,  with 
teachings  that  do  my  heart  good.  I  needed  discipline, 
Bertie,  and  if  it  be  the  Father's  will  that  I  should  be 
ripened  in  heat  that  has  blasted  all  my  leaves  and  the 
buds  in  which  I  took  most  pleasure,  let  that  will  be 
done  !  He  gives  me  strength  for  the  day  of  trial  and 
submission  to  its  fires.  Perhaps  the  light  will  come  at 
evening-time.  If  not — the  night  will  bring  me  rest." 

She  was  playing  with  baby  Ruth's  hand,  doub 
ling  the  fingers  about  one  of  hers,  and  anon  stroking 
them  lightly.  The  baby  slept  on,  and  Albert  was 
quiet  again  for  a  longer  space  than  before. 

"  You  have  never  heard  from  him  since  he  left 
you  ? "  he  said,  finally,  with  an  effort. 


PREMIERS  TEMPTATION.  253 

Phemie  kissed  the  soft  fingers  twice,  quickly  and 
passionately  before  she  answered.  Yet  her  voice  was 
composed.  "  I  have  not.  He  took  passage  for  Aus 
tralia,  Mr.  Mallory  says." 

The  boy  reared  his  head  suddenly.  "  I  am  in  my 
twentieth  year,  Phemie !  I  am  paying  my  own  way 
now,  with  my  carvings,  and  teaching,  and  music.  In 
five  years  more  I  shall  be  able  to  support  you  and 
your  child.  Then  you  must  live  with  me.  I  shall 
never  marry,  of  course,  and,  by  that  time,  should 
your — should  Hart  not  return,  the  law  will  release 
you  from  all  obligation  to  him — free  you  from  his 
very  name,  should  you  desire  it.  Ours  shall  be  a 
happy  home,  and  the  past  be  as  if  it  had  never  been." 

Phemie  leaned  over  Ruth  to  kiss  the  sightless  face, 
glowing  with  anticipation  of  the  paradise  pictured  by 
his  loving  imagination.  "  There  is  no  harm  in  dream 
ing  that  our  home  may  one  day  be  the  same,  Bertie 
dear.  If  your  ability  to  help  me  were  commensurate 
with  your  will,  I  should  begin,  from  this  hour,  a  life 
of  ladylike  indolence.  But  there  comes  a  glimpse  of 
the  Divine  love  and  wisdom  again,  brother  !  I  ought 
not  to  have  leisure  for  brooding  and  idling.  \  was 
put  into  the  hive  to  work,  not  dream.  I  remember 
when  I  used  to  envy  those  who  had  time  for  castle- 
building  ;  for  the  indulgence  of  sweet,  unprofitable 
musings.  I  have  tried  this  life,  and  I  have  no  desire 
to  repeat  the  experiment.  As  for  the  latter  part  of 
your  scheme,  do  not  be  hurt,  Bertie,  when  I  tell  you 
plainly  that  it  is  impracticable  ;  I  owe  duty  to  .my 
husband  while  I  live.  No  quibble  of  man's  law  can 


254-  PREMIE'S  TEMPTATION. 

free  me  from  my  marriage  vow.  I  will  be  very 
frank  with  you.  Whatever  home  I  have  is  Robert's 
as  well,  should  he  wish  to  share  it.  I  have  a  presen 
timent  that  he  will  come  back  to  me.  It  may  not  be 
for  many  years,  but  he  will  come.  I  do  not  know 
whether  Sorrow  will  drive  him,  or  late,  repentant 
Love  move  him  to  seek  the  wife  who  loves  him,  and 
whom  he  once  loved — for  he  did  love  me  very  dearly ; 
but  return  he  must,  and  I  have  thought  lately" — 
stopping  to  hold  the  tiny  fingers  to  her  mouth  in  a 
pressure  that  left  their  white  imprint  upon  the  red  of 
the  full  lower  lip — "  I  have  hoped  until  I  believe,  that 
when  he  has  once  looked  into  his  baby's  eyes,  he  can 
not  leave  us  again.  If  I  could  send  him  word  of  her 
coming,  he  might  the  sooner  be  given  back  to  me. 
There  was  much  good  in  him,  Bertie.  You — Miss 
Darcy — all  my  friends,  are  hard  upon  him.  He  and 
I  misunderstood  one  another.  This  was  the  cause  of 
great  unhappiness.  When  he  left  me,  he  was  scarcely 
sane.  My  constant  prayer  is  that  he  may  be  restored 
to  his  right  mind,  and  I  be  granted  the  opportunity 
of  atoning  for  my  many  mistakes  by  a  life  of  patient 
love  and  duty." 

Albert  sat,  his  elbow  on  his  knee,  his  face  averted 
to  hide  from  the  speaker  the  pity  and  incredulity  with 
which  he  had  listened  to  her  plea  for  her  sinning  hus 
band,  and  prophecy  of  his  return.  She  could  forgive 
because  she  loved  him,  but  in  her  brother's  breast 
hatred  surged  up  hotly  whenever  he  thought  of  the 
insult  put  upon  her  by  Hart's  ignominious  flight ;  of 
her  destitution  and  the  wearying  labor  by  which  she 


PHEMIWS  TEMPTATION.  255 

had  provided  the  means  of  subsistence  during  her 
term  of  worse  than  widowhood.  One  of  Phemie's 
ancient  characteristics  remained  in  fall  force — her 
strength  of  will,  where  will  was  sustained  by  the  be 
lief  that  she  had  right  on  her  side.  She  would  not 
believe  in  her  husband's  total  depravity,  nor  would 
she  listen  to  a  word  defamatory  of  him.  Miss  Darcy 
had  learned  this  on  that  first  terrible  evening,  when 
news  of  the  failure  and  flight  having  reached  her,  she 
had  repaired  with  haste  to  a  house,  the  threshold  of 
which  she  had  not  crossed  for  more  than  a  year,  and 
found  the  abandoned  wife  alone  in  her  horror  and 
despair.  Phemie  had  not  heard  Robert's  name  in 
many  months  until  Albert  mentioned  it  on  this  after 
noon,  and,  although  it  thrilled  her  with  a  pang  like 
that  of  the  earliest  moments  of  bereavement,  there 
was  still  relief  in  openly  averring  her  hope  that  he 
would  be  reclaimed  ;  her  faith  in  the  omnipotence  of 
love — the  love  she  was  persuaded  he  still  had  for  her, 
as  well  as  hers  for  him.  Her  child — and  his — was  to 
her  a  tangible  pledge  of  her  reunion.  After  years  of 
longing,  the  heaven-sent  gift  had  raised  the  sluice 
ways  of  mother-love,  and  she  accepted  the  answer  to 
this  prayer  as  an  earnest  that  her  later  petition  would 
be  answered  as  graciously. 

The  quiet  of  the  room  was  interrupted  by  the 
sound  of  wheels  and  voices  under  the  window.  Mr. 
Darcy  had  driven  over  to  the  depot  for  his  sister  and 
brought  her  back  with  him.  She  did  not  wait  to 
shake  off  the  dust  of  travel  before  coming  into  Phe 
mie's  parlor  to  see  how  her  charges  fared.  Baby 


256  PREMIERS  TEMPTATION. 

awoke  as  her  mother  arose  to  greet  her  friend,  and 
stretched  her  eyes  in  a  stare  and  smile  that  were  de 
cided  by  the  exultant  parent  to  be  unequivocal  recog 
nition.  Miss  Darcy  took  her  in  her  arms,  without 
speaking,  and  bent  her  face  upon  the  plump,  vague 
visage.  When  Phemie  received  her  babe  again,  a 
single  drop  of  warm  water  glistened  among  the  rings 
of  pale  brown  hair.  But  Miss  Darcy  was  voluble 
with  questions  as  to  how  she  had  passed  the  time  of 
her  absence ;  when  Albert  had  come  ;  how  baby  had 
slept,  etc.,  and  kept  Phemie  too  busy  answering 
them  to  allow  time  for  speculations  as  to  the  cause  of 
her  sudden  overflow  of  emotion.  They  kept  early 
hours  at  the  farm-house — all  but  baby,  who  had  de 
veloped  a  genius  for  lying  awake  and  blinking  at 
the  candle,  that  augured  ill — if  it  augured  anything 
— for  her  regular  habits  in  later  life. 

The  evening  was  chilly  with  October  frostiness, 
and  a  bright  wood-fire  had  been  kindled  upon  the 
hearth  in  Phemie's  room.  She  sat  before  it,  wake 
ful  and  mute  as  the  child  upon  her  knees,  when  Miss 
Darcy  knocked  at  the  door. 

"I  hoped  I  should  find  you  up,"  she  said.  "  Nine 
o'clock  bedtime  agrees  with  me  excellently  as  a  re 
cuperative  measure  during  two  months  of  the  year ; 
but  I  can't  sleep  to-night.  Moreover,  I  am  restless, 
and  I  have  come  in  to  you  to  be  quieted." 

u  To  me !  "  smiled  Phemie,  in  sad  wonderment. 

"  Yes !  to  somebody  who  has  loved  and  suffered 
long  and  patiently.  Child !  since  I  parted  from 
you,  day  before  yesterday,  I  have  been  helping  to 


PHEMIE'S  TEMPTATION.  257 

open  a  grave  I  covered  in  n've-and-twenty  years 
ago." 

There  was  vehemence  in  her  manner,  passion  in  her 
voice  and  words  that  amazed  and  alarmed  her  auditor. 

"  If  I  can  comfort  you,  it  is  surely  my  right  to  do 
so,"  rejoined  the  latter,  affectionately,  "  for  you  have 
been  my  best  earthly  comforter." 

"  Next  to  baby,"  said  Miss  Darcy,  with  an  instant 
softening  of  tone. 

She  knelt  to  kiss  the  wide-awake  bantling,  then 
bestowed  herself  in  a  rocking-chair.  She  was  wont, 
not  three  months  since,  to  class  these  seats  among  the 
social  nuisances  of  America.  Having  arranged  her 
lap  in  a  very  nursely  manner,  she  held  out  her  hands. 
"  Let  me  hold  her  !  I  can  talk  better  of  what  is  on 
my  mind  while  I  have  her." 

Phemie  thought  how  the  unconscious  twining  of 
the  baby  fingers  about  hers  had  strengthened  her  dur 
ing  the  dialogue  of  the  afternoon,  and  resigned  her 
treasure.  Miss  Darcy  appeared  to  forget  that  she 
had  a  communication  to  make  when  her  wish  had 
been  granted.  She  smoothed  the  flossy  hair,  curling 
crisply  with  the  warmth  of  the  room,  nestled  the 
round  chin  in  the  hollow  of  her  palm,  and  studied  the 
lights  and  shadows  of  the  brown  eyes.  She  could 
not  talk  baby  talk.  It  was,  to  her  notion,  a  nursery 
abomination,  not  to  be  tolerated  in  this  rational  age  ; 
but  there  escaped  her  lips,  more  than  once,  inarticulate 
sounds  of  "tenderness  that  would  have  arranged  them 
selves  into  the  reprobated  jargon  had  she  known 
enough  of  the  dialect  to  copy  it. 


258  PREMIERS  TEMPTATION. 

"  Twenty-five  years  ago,"  she  began,  abruptly, 
when  a  quarter  of  an  hour  had  been  thus  consumed,  "  I 
was  sitting  by  this  fire  on  a  cold  evening  in  October. 
It  was  later  in  the  month  than  this,  for  we  had  been 
nutting  that  afternoon,  and  I  was  measuring  those  we 
had  gathered.  I  had  a  large  basket  of  chestnuts  be 
side  me  on  .the  floor,  and  was  kneeling  by  them,  fill 
ing  a  quart  cup  and  pouring  them  out  into  another 
basket.  '  Five,  six,'  I  had  counted,  when  somebody 
came  in  behind  me  and  took  the  tin  measure  from 
my  hand.  It  was  Reuben  Stilton,  the  son  of  a 
neighbor.  I  had  been  engaged  to  be  married  to  him 
for  two  years.  I  was  twenty-two,  he  twenty-four, 
and  he  was  studying  medicine  in  the  city.  I  had  not 
heard  that  he  was  at  his  father's,  and  was  surprised 
to  see  him.  The  journey  to  town  was  made  by 
stage,  not  railroad,  then.  He  laughed  at  my  start  and 
scream  ;  and,  after  he  had  kissed  me,  and  I  had  said 
how  rejoiced  I  was  at  his  coming,  he  set  the  basket 
of  chestnuts  into  a  far  corner  of  the  room — just  over 
there.  '  I  can  finish  them  in  three  minutes,'  I  said. 
'  I  promised  the  boys  I  would  measure  them  by  the 
time  they  had  studied  their  lessons."  The  boys  were 
my  nephews,  and  the  nuts  were  chiefly  their  spoils. 
I  knew  they  counted  upon  boasting  of  the  quantity 
they  had  gathered  when  they  should  go  to  school 
on  Monday,  morning,  and  this  was  Saturday  night. 

"  '  Always  putting  the  wishes  and  conveniences  of 
others  before  mine  ! '  he  said,  roughly.  '  I  am  tired 
of  this  thing,  Ruth.  When  I  asked  you  to  be  my 
wife,  I  did  not  bargain  to  marry  everybody's  slave.1 


PREMIER  TEMPTATION.  259 

"  I  was  hurt,  yet  I  could  not  believe  that  he  was  in 
earnest — this  was  so  unlike  his  usual  manner  of 
speaking.  '  Oh,  Reuben  ! '  I  answered,  '  when  did  I 
ever  put  the  pleasure  of  another  before  yours  ? '" 

"  '  When  ? '  He  spoke  savagely,  now.  '  You 
would  teach  this  confounded  district-school,  although 
your  brother  effered  to  support  you  like  a  lady  here 
at  home,  and  you  are  for  ever  working  for  somebody 
when  I  come  to  see  you.  And  when  I  begged  you 
last  winter  to  marry  me  then,  and  end  this  tire 
some  probation,  you  took  your  brother's  advice  in 
stead  of  listening  to  me,  and  sent  me  oif  to  the  city, 
where  I  am  subjected  to  all  descriptions  of  evil  and 
temptation,  while  you  are  fast  growing  into  a  prim 
country  school  teacher,  losing  your  health  and  good 
looks,  and  wearing  out  my  heart  and  patience  ! ' 

"  He  snatched  the  poker  as  he  finished,  and  struck 
the  fire  a  blow  that  broke  the  back-log  and  sent  the 
coals  flying  all  over  the  hearth.  I  had  time,  while  I 
swept  them  up,  to  arrange  my  thoughts,  and  deter 
mined  to  reply  kindly.  He  was  evidently  greatly  ex 
cited,  and  I  must  not  lose  my  temper.  So  1  made 
the  mistake  of  trying  to  reason  with  him. 

"  '  As  to  the  school,'  I  said,  '  I  could  not  reconcile 
it  with  my  sense  of  right  and  honor  to  be  a  burden 
upon  my  brother,  who  has  a  large  family  to  support, 
when  I  know  he  is  obliged  to  work  hard  to  finish  pay 
ing  for  the  farm,  and  to  provide  for  his  household.  I 
must  do  something  in  order  to  get  a  living ;  and  I 
"had  rather  teach  than  sew,  or  spin,  or  weave.  I 
make  myself  useful  to  mv  sister-in-law  when  school 


260  PHEMIE'S  TEMPTATION. 

hours  are  over,  but  she  does  not  require  it.  I  am 
fond  of  her  and  of  the  children,  and  I  am  not  fond 
of  idleness.  I  refused  to  marry  you  last  winter  out  of 
love  and  consideration  for  yourself.  I  could  not  have 
done  you  a  more  unfriendly  turn  than  by  yielding  to 
your  wishes  in  this  respect.  I  should  have  doubled 
your  expenses,  and  been  a  hindrance  instead  of  a  help 
to  you.  If  the  thought  of  my  love — the  knowledge 
that  I  think  of,  and  pray  for  you  every  hour,  does 
not  guard  you  against  temptation  to  evil,  I  am  afraid 
my  presence  would  not.  I  cannot  judge  as  to  the  ef 
fect  that  school  teaching  has  upon  my  looks,  but  it 
has  not  inj ured  my  health  or  spirits.  We  have  only 
to  be  patient  and  hopeful,  Reuben — true  to  GOD,  to 
ourselves,  and  each  other,  and  happiness  will  come 
in  the  end.  This  probation  may  be  useful  to  us 
both.  What  has  happened  to  trouble  you  ? ' 

"  *  I  am  tired ! '  he  said,  throwing  himself  into  a 
chair  and  frowning  at  the  fire.  '  Tired  of  work  and 
waiting !  Tired  of  everything  ! ' 

"  '  Not  tired  of  me,  I  hope  ! '  I  returned,  laughing 
in  the  hope  of  changing  the  tide  of  his  thoughts. 

"  He  answered  never  a  word,  only  pushed  his 
hands  deep  into  his  pockets  and  continued  to  frown 
at  the  fire.  Like  the  unsuspecting  fool  I  was,  I  put 
my  arm  about  his  neck — we  had  been  children  to 
gether,  you  must  remember,  and  I  had  promised,  two 
years  before,  to  become  his  wife  when  he  should  bo 
ready  to  marry — I  put  my  arm  about  his  neck,  kneel 
ing  on  the  floor  to  do  this,  and  smiled  up  into  his 
face — not  his  eyes.  They  never  left  the  fire. 


PHEMIE'8  TEMPTATION.  261 

"  'Not  tired  of  me,  are  you,  Keuben  ? '  I  repeated. 

"  It  might  be  the  reflection  of  the  blaze  that  made 
his  eyes  red  ajid  sullen,  but  they  had  a  hard,  defiant 
look  that  sent  a  chill  to  my  heart — a  fear  that  I  had 
offended  him.  I  had  no  thought  still  that  he  could 
ever  be  unfaithful.  Even  then  he  did  not  reply,  and 
I  pulled  his  face  around  until  I  brought  his  sight  to 
bear  upon  mine.  Then  I  said,  for  the  third  time: — 

"  '  Do  you  hear  me,  Reuben  ?  I  asked  if  you  were 
growing  tired  of  me  ? ' 

"  I  have  been  ashamed  of  my  girlish  fondness  on 
that  occasion  a  thousand  times  since  that  evening, 
have  felt  the  blood  rush  to  my  face  with  a  force  and 
suddenness  that  made  it  ache  as  well  as  glow,  when- 
I  recalled  the  simplicity  of  my  trust  in  his  love  and 
fealty.  I  do  not  feel  shame,  but  gladness  and  pride 
to-night  in  the  recollection.  If  I  had  been  less  pure 
in  thought,  less  single-hearted,  I  should  have  taken 
alarm  sooner.  It  is  a  comfort  to  feel  that  1  was  once 
guileless  in  trust  and  affection.  He  did  not  resist 
when  I  would  have  compelled  him  to  look  at  me. 
But  his  gaze  was  cold  as  dark. 

"  '  I  don't  know,  Ruth  ! '  was  all  he  said. 

"  I  released  him,  and  went  back  to  my  chair.  His 
eyes  returned  to  the  hearth.  '  Reuben  ! '  I  said,  when 
the  shock  let  me  articulate,  '  is  this  jest  or  earnest  ? 
"What  have  I  done  that  you  should  treat  me  so 
unkindly  ? ' 

" '  Nothing ! '  The  words  came  very  slowly.  '  If 
you  had  offended  me  in  any  way,  been  one  whit  less 
deserving  of  the  love  of  a  better  man  than  I  can 


262  PREMIER  TEMPTATION. 

ever  be,  I  could  understand  my  feelings,  could  more 
easily  forgive  my  wandering  affections.' 

"The  fire  crackled  and  roared  with  cruel  merri 
ment  as  I  watched  the  blaze  and  sparks  leap  up  the 
chimney — waiting  until  my  whirling  brain  should  be 
still,  my  heart  stop  its  stifled  crying.  I  dared  not 
speak  yet ;  if  I  did,  he  would  see  how  I  was  suffering, 
and,  for  the  first  time  in  our  intercourse,  a  thought 
of  pride  came  between  us.  He  had  cast  me  off,  and 
I  believed  I  should  die  from  the  effects  of  the  blow, 
but  nobody  should  guess  what  had  killed  me.  Awhile 
later  I  could  reflect  that  his  punishment  would  be 
the  heavier  for  his  knowledge  of  my  great  woe,  and 
I  would  not  increase  its  severity,  but  I  did  not  think 
of  this  at  first. 

"  We  sat  thus  at  opposite  sides  of  the  hearth,  and 
seemed  to  study  the  wood  fire.  I  do  not  know 
whether  he  saw  it  or  not,  but  I  did,  for  the  words, 
'  Man  is  born  jmto  trouble  as  the  sparks  fly  upward,' 
kept  rolling  over  and  over  in  my  mind,  and  then  the 
thought,  '  If  man  ?  what  of  woman  ?  accursed  from 
the  day  of  the  fall — doubly  accursed.'  I  understood 
in  that  hour,  clearly  and  positively,  what  had  never 
entered  my  brain  before — that,  if  we  parted — and 
part  we  must — the  loss  would  all  be  mine ;  that  even 
if  he  loved  me  as  I  must  ever  love  him,  he  would 
yet  be  able  to  drive  out  the  memory  and  need  of  me 
by  other  hopes,  pursuits,  and  ambition.  "While  I 
must,  for  the  remainder  of  my  blighted  life,  take  up 
Jacob's  lament,  and  cry  in  emptiness  of  heart  and 
exceeding  bitterness  of  spirit,  '  If  I  be  bereaved,  I  am 


PHEfflE'S  TEMPTATION.  263 

bereaved  ! '  Life  could  nevermore  be  the  same  to 
me  ;  would  bear  the  same  likeness  to  my  late  happy, 
busy  existence,  as  the  dead  ashes  on  the  hearth  to 
morrow  morning  would  to  the  living  tree  before  it 
was  felled  and  cast  into  the  fire.  We  think  fast  and 
strongly  in  moments  like  these.  I  was  soon  com 
posed  enough  to  look  at  him  again.  I  could  meet 
his  eyes  better  than  he  could  mine. 

"  '  "When  did  this  begin  ? '  I  asked.  'You  should 
have  told  me  of  the  change  so  soon  as  you  noticed  it.' 

"  '  I  did  not  like  to  acknowledge  that  there  was  a 
change.'  He  paused  to  wet  his  lips  before  he  went 
on.  They  were  dry  and  stiff.  '  I  fought  against  the 
conviction  while  I  could.  For  days  and  weeks  to 
gether  I  would  feel  the  same  toward  you  as  of  old. 
It  cost  me  no  effort  to  write  lovingly,  and  the  thought 
of  our  marriage  was  pleasant.  Then,  without  appa 
rent  cause,  everything  would  be  reversed.  If  I  wrote, 
every  endearing  epithet  was  forced  and  heartless, 
and  I  shrank  from  anticipating  the  day  of  our  union. 
I  can't  say  how  it  came  about.  I  used  to  condemn 
myself  as  base  and  fickle ;  but  lately,  I  .have  ques 
tioned  whether  the  fault  were  not  in  our  premature 
engagement.'  .His  words  flowed  more  smoothly, 
now,  as  he  entered  upon  his  self-justification. 

"  '  We  had  never  been  tried,  Ruth.  We  were 
ignorant  of  the  world  and  its  ways  ;  and  of  the  real 
state  of  our  feelings.  This  gradual  estrangement  is 
the  frequent  consequence  of  precipitate  action  in 
these  matters.  The  selection  of  a  partner  for  life  is 
a  very  important  step,  and  a  man's  ideas  and  habits, 


264  PREMIERS  TEMPTATION. 

and  his  feelings  with  them,  undergo  great  modifica 
tions  when  he  enters  a  different  circle  from* that  in 
which  he  was  reared.' 

"  He  stopped  again.  I  think  he  was  abashed  at 
the  sound  of  his  own  excuses.  Uttered  in  this  room, 
where  we  had  plighted  our  troth,  they  must  have 
sounded  unlike  the  plausible  arguments  he  had 
arranged  among  other  scenes — the  scenes  and  associ 
ations  that  had  weaned  him  from  me. 

"  '  You  are  quite  right ! '  I  returned,  as  he  ceased. 
I  hope  I  said  it  calmly.  I  tried  not  to  say  it  bitterly. 
'  Consistency  should  be  the  rule  of  a  man's  life.  His 
wife  should  not  be  so  unlike  his  chosen  companions 
as  to  make  him  ashamed  of  her.  I  can  foresee  that 
you  would  be  heartily  ashamed  of  me.  When  I 
promised  'to  marry  you,  it  was  in  the  hope  that  you 
would  be  happier  with  than  without  me.  Now, 
when  that  hope  has  gone,  I  should  do  you  and  my 
self  a  harm,  were  I  to  regard  the  letter  of  our  com 
pact  as  anything  but  a  hollow  husk.  We  will  throw 
-it  away,  Reuben.  I  hope — I  say  it  in  solemn  sin 
cerity — that  GOD  will  bless  and  prosper  you.  We 
will  shake  hands  and  say  '  Good-by,'  as  friends,  not 
lovers,  do.'  He  threw  his  arms  around  me,  as  I 
stood  up  and  offered  him  my  hand. 

"  'I  believe  that  I  love  you  after  all,  Ruthy  !  No 
other  woman  can  ever  make  me  so  happy  as  you  can. 
Try  me  again,  won't  you  ? ' 

" '  Never  ! '  I  said.     '  That  is  all  over  now ! ' 

"  Then  he  called  me  obdurate  and  vindictive,  and 
warned  me,  that  if  he  went  to  perdition  without  the 


PREMIERS  TEMPTATION.  265 

guarding  influences  of  my  love,  his  blood  would  be 
upon  my  soul.  There  have  been  times  when  that 
has  haunted  me,  too  !  I  wish,  to-night,  that  he  had 
spared  me  the  threat. 

"  "Well,  he  went,  and  I  stayed !  That  is  the  com 
mon  story,  Phemie !  so  common,  people  are  apt  to 
forget  how  mournful  it  is.  To  go,  is  to  forget  cha 
grin,  and  wounded  love,  and  perished  hopes,  in  the 
whirl  of  the  dizzy,  busy  world,  that  defies  one  to 
stand  still  long  enough  to  think  or  to  regret.  To 
stay,  is  to  be  left  to  monotony  and  memory.  I 
fought  against  both  with  indifferent  success,  until 
Keuben's  sister,  who  had  been  my  bosom  friend,  came 
to  me  with  the  news  that  he  was  engaged  to  a  beau 
tiful  girl  in  the  city.  Her  father  was  wealthy,  and 
she  highly  accomplished.  That  gave  me  the  clue  to 
all  that  he  had  not  explained.  There  was  no  need, 
his  sister  said,  that  their  marriage  should  be  deferred 
until  he  had  completed  his  medical  course.  It  was 
to  take  place  almost  immediately,  so  soon  as  the 
wedding  outfit  could  be  procured.  If  I  had  believed 
that  I  was  cured  of  my  liking  for  him,  I  was  unde 
ceived  by  this  news.  I  had  just  received  the  .offer 
of  a  situation  as  governess  in  a  family  who  lived  two 
hundred  miles  away  from  my  native  place.  The  com 
pensation  was  fair — or  seemed  so  to  my  inexperience 
— and  I  made  this  the  excuse  for  accepting  the  place 
without  demur.  I  did  not  come  home  for  a  year. 
When  I  did,  I  learned  that,  in  consequence  of  some 
disagreement  between  the  wealthy  citizen  and  his 
son-in-law  expectant,  the  engagement  had  been 
12 


266  PREMIE'S  TEMPTATION. 

broken  off  almost  upon  the  eve  of  the  marriage.  The 
bride's  father  was  reputed  to  be  ill-natured  and  ar 
bitrary,  and  close  upon  the  story  of  the  rupture 
crept  hints  that  the  action  of  the  parent  was  justi 
fied  by  the  dissipation  of  the  intended  bridegroom. 
His  family  maintained  that  he  was  plunged  into  evil 
habits  by  the  mortification  and  disappointment  at 
tendant  upon  this  affair,  and  when  it  became  noto 
rious  that  he  had  fallen  from  respectability  as  well 
as  from  virtue,  they  persisted  in  casting  all  the  blame 
upon  the  author  of  this  one  misfortune. 

"For  ten  years  I  heard  nothing  of  him — ten 
years  of  work  for  myself  and  for  others.  I  had 
gained  a  little  reputation  and  laid  aside  a  little 
money,  and,  I  fancied,  had  learned  how  to  forget. 
I  -was  in  a  hospital  one  night,  nursing  a  factory- 
girl  who  had  been  caught  in  the  machinery  of  the 
mill  and  badly  hurt.  I  was  known  to  the  physician 
in  charge,  and  he  granted  me  permission  to  watch 
with  her  until  morning.  She  was  under  the  influence 
of  opium,  and,  seated  by  her  bed  as  she  slept,  I  had 
time  to  look  about  me.  At  nine  o'clock  a  man  was 
brought  in,  who  had  been  picked  up  in  the  streets 
apparently  dying.  His  clothes  were  soaked  with 
rain  and  the  mud  of  the  gutter ;  his  hair  and  beard 
were  a  filthy  mass  ;  but  there  are  some  things  I  can 
not  speak  of !  I  went  to  him  at  the  call  of  the  phy 
sician,  the  regular  ward-nurse  chancing  to  be  engaged. 
The  sick  man  was  delirious — with  fever,  as  we  then 
thought.  "We  found  afterward  that  he  had  been  par 
tially  insane  for  some  months,  and  was  well  known 


PHEMIE'S  TEMPTATION.  267 

in  the  lowest  haunts  of  pickpockets  and  gamblers. 
I  need  not  tell  you  who  he  was,  nor  how  I  recognized 
him,  little  by  little,  when  I  had  cleansed  his  face  and 
combed  and  cut  his  hair.  Had  the  identification 
been  instant,  I  might  have  lost  my  own  senses.  As 
it  was,  I  had  everything  arranged  by  the  time  he  was 
convalescent  in  body.  In  mind,  he  was  less  sound 
than  before  his  illness.  His  parents  and  sisters  were 
dead.  The  property  bequeathed  him  by  the  former 
was  squandered.  He  was  an  insane  pauper.  I  put 
him  into  a  lunatic  asylum,  and  kept  him  there  until 
his  death.  My  relatives  knew  nothing  of  it.  The 
friendly  doctor  kept  my  secret.  The  asylum  author 
ities  recognized  me  as  the  agent  of  the  patient's 
friends.  Twice  a  year  I  went  to  see  him,  but  he 
never  remembered  me,  except  dimly  as  the  hospital 
nurse.  Sometimes,  when  I  called,  I  could  not  see 
him.  His  paroxysms  were  often  violent,  and  no 
visitor  was  admitted  to  his  cell  while  they  prevailed. 
'  "When  I  received  this  answer,  I  went  back  to  my 
work  and  waited  until  notified  that  the  madness  had 
subsided.  He  was  well  treated.  I  assured  myself 
of  this  by  vigilant  espionage  and  by  gifts  to  his 
keepers.  His  clothing  was  good  and  whole ;  his 
food  excellent,  and  whatever  pleasures  were  com 
patible  with  the  rules  of  the  institution  were  freely 
granted  him. 

"These  are  homely  details,  but  they  have  had 
much  to  do  with  my  inner  life  for  fifteen  years.  Two 
days  ago  I  had  a  telegraphic  dispatch  from  the  head 
physician  of  the  asylum  to  the  effect  that '  Reuben 


268  PHEMIE'S  TEMPTATION. 

Stilton  was  supposed  to  be  dying.'  He  lived  two 
hours  after  I  reached  him.  He  suffered  little,  physi 
cally,  and  his  reason  was  beclouded  to  the  last." 

She  made  a  busy  pretence  of  tucking  the  blanket 
about  baby,  who  had  fallen  asleep. 

"  Let  me  lay  her  down  !  "  said  Phemie,  pityingly. 

"  Not  yet !  I  am  almost  through.  I  had  long 
lived  upon  the  fond  fancy  that  he  would  know  me 
when  the  end  came.  I  had  heard  and  read  how  the 
breath  of  the  Death-angel  often  dispelled  the  gloom 
that  rested  upon  the  intellect  of  others  similarly 
afflicted.  It  was  a  wild,  blind  desire.  GOD  knows 
best.  If  a  gleam  of  intelligence  had  revisited  the  dis 
tracted  brain,  he  could  not  have  recognized  in  me 
the  blooming  girl  he  had  known  in  his  and  my  better 
days.  I  appreciated  the  force  of  this  when  I  took  a 
final  look  at  the  white  face,  with  its  sharpened  fea 
tures  and  silver  hair,  before  the  coffin-lid  was  closed. 
I  remembered,  too,  your  favorite  watchword,  and, 
'  thanking  GOD,  took  courage.' ': 

Phemie  was  weeping  silently,  but  she  smiled  at 
this.  "  May  I  remind  you  of  another  old  favorite 
of  us  both,  dear?"  she  asked,  drawing  nearer  her 
friend. 

"  Death  is  but  a  covered  way 

Which  opens  into  light ; 
Wherein  no  blinded  child  can  stray 
Beyond  the  Father's  sight" 

Miss  Darcy  rocked  baby  Ruth  to  and  fro,  her 
countenance,  meanwhile,  regaining  its  usual  expres 
sion  of  tranquil  decision.  "  I  am  spoiling  her,  I  sup- 


PREMIE'S  TEMPTATION. 


269 


pose  !  "  she  said  presently,  abruptly.  "  She  ought 
to  be  in  her  cradle.  I  wouldn't  rock  her,  though, 
unless  she  should  stir.  The  motion  is  injurious  to 
the  brain — so  say  modern  doctors.  But  doctors — 
ancient  and  modern — are  humbugs,  I  think !  " 


CHAPTER  XIY. 

NE  result  of  Reuben  Stilton's  death  had  not 
been  thought  of  by  Phemie  when  she  sought 
to  console  the  solitary  mourner  over  his 
tomb — the  woman  whose  life  had  carried 
within  it,  for  a  quarter  of  a  century,  a  ro 
mance  of  love,  sorrow,  and  fidelity,  that  put  to  shame 
the  pretentious  sentiments  and  griefs  blazoned  upon 
the  surface  of  petty  and  querulous  hearts.  A  large 
proportion  of  Miss  Darcy's  income  had  been  appro 
priated  to  the  support  of  her  faithless  lover.  "With 
this  she  could  now  make  a  home  for  herself  and  fam 
ily,  to  wit,  Phemie  and  her  baby. 

When  these  last  returned  to  the  city,  it  was  to  take 
possession  of  a  quaint  little  house  of  many  gables  and 
angles,  which,  being  part  of  a  contested  estate,  was 
rented  at  a  low  rate,  provided  the  tenant  would  keep 
it  in  repair.  Miss  Darcy  complied  with  the  stipula 
tion  by  having  it  thoroughly  cleaned  and  whitewashed 
within,  and  seeing  that  doors  and  windows  were  well 
hung.  "  Ventilation  was  a  prime  consideration  in  a 
house  where  there  was  a  baby."  For  the  same  reason, 


PREMIERS  TEMPTATION.  271 

she  had  an  open,  freely-burning  grate  put  into  Phe- 
mie's  sitting-room,  which  was  also  the  nursery.  "  A 
nursery  should  be  the  lightest,  warmest,  most  airy 
chamber  in  the  building."  There  was  a  tiny  yard  in 
front  of  the  cottage,  which  stood  upon  a  corner  of 
two  moderately  wide  streets,  and  in  the  rear  a  paved 
court,  surrounded  by  a  narrow  border  of  mould,  where 
flowers  had  once  grown.  Miss  Darcy  meditated  a 
vari-colored  fringe  of  blossoms  on  the  inside  of  the  old 

o 

brick  wall,  when  spring  and  summer  should  arrive. 
"  Children  were  always  fond  of  flowers.'1  A  sturdy 
linden — not  tall,  but  bushy — stood  on  one  side  of  the 
court,  and  would  furnish  grateful  shade  M'hen  in  leaf, 
in  which  baby  could  play.  In  fine,  this  queer  old- 
fashioned  edifice,  which  people  with  architectural 
tastes  condemned  as  a  blot  upon  a  neat  neighborhood 
— its  gray  walls,  sloping  roof,  and  irregular  rows  of 
casements  contrasting  offensively,  in  their  eyes,  with 
the  trim  rectangular  blocks  of  "  genteel  private  resi 
dences,"  stretching  away  up  and  down  the  streets  in 
double  lines — was  a  very  pearl  of  cottages  in  Miss 
Darcy's  opinion,  and  must  have  been  planned  with 
express  reference  to  the  needs  and  delights  of  baby- 
dom. 

She  installed  her  "  family  "  by  putting  Phemie  and 
baby  in  the  two  best  chambers,  and  a  middle-aged 
colored  widow  in  the  kitchen,  and,  taking  the  back 
parlor  for  her  own  study,  removed  thither  the  well- 
worn  floor  oil-cloth  ;  the  oaken  desks  and  uncompro 
mising  chairs ;  the  book-shelves  and  the  books  from 
her  old  office,  and  slid,  with  a  will,  into  the  groove 


272  PREMIE'S  TEMPTATION. 

of  "  business."  It  was  a  busy  winter  with  Phemie, 
likewise.  Little  Ruth,  after  the  manner  of  small 
ladies  who  have  been  pampered  in  the  beginning,  had 
a  decided  perception  of  her  rights,  and  manifested  a 
determination  to  secure  these  that  interfered  sadly, 
for  a  time,  with  the  play  of  her  mother's  pen  or 
needle.  She  liked  to  be  dandled  and  noticed  as  well 
as  if  she  had  been  born  to  a  spacious  nursery,  a  rose 
wood  crib  with  lace  curtains,  a  silver  pap-boat,  and  a 
French  or  Swiss  bonne.  Phemie  did  not  rebel  at  her 
demands  upon  her  time  and  strength  until  she  dis 
covered  that  she  was  earning  only  half  as  much  as 
she  had  done  during  the  summer,  and  that  her  health 
was  suffering  from  late  hours  and  overwork.  Then 
she  held  a  consultation  with  her  better  judgment,  and 
decreed  that  lady  Ruth  must  be  reared  as  are  the 
children  of  the  industrious  poor,  and  consigned  her 
to  a  blanket  and  pillow  upon  the  floor  instead  of 
being  "  cuddled  "  upon  her  lap ;  gave  her  a  rattle 
and  a  string  of  spools  in  lieu  of  making  faces  for  her 
amusement,  and  dancing  her  upon  her  hand.  It  was 
a  hard  lesson  for  baby ;  harder  for  Miss  Darcy ;  hard 
est  of  all  for  the  mother.  Morning  after  morning 
she  bent  over  her  accounts  or  copying,  pity  and  grief 
tugging  at  her  heart-strings  in  one  mighty  strain  of 
maternal  anguish,  as  the  angry  scream,  and  anon,  the 
piteous  wail  of  the  neglected  child  pierced  her  ears. 
She  worked  slowly,  thus  situated,  but  she  performed 
her  task  mechanically  well  by  dint  of  determined 
abstraction  of  her  mind — she  could  not  control  her 
sympathies — from  wliat  was  going  on  about  her. 


PREMIE'S  TEMPTATION.  273 

Baby  was  quick-tempered,  but  forgiving,  and  always 
forgot  the  maltreatment  of  the  day  in  the  bath,  and 
romp,  and  caresses  that  prepared  her  for  bed,  and 
compensated  the  mother,  in  some  measure,  for  the 
violence  she  had  done  her  own  feelings  in  carrying 
out  the  discipline  prescribed  by  Duty  and  Necessity. 

She  had  no  society  outside  the  house.  Emily  and 
Olive  called,  perhaps  once  a  month,  to  see  how  she 
was  getting  along,  and  to  apologize  for  not  coming 
oftener.  Each  had  a  young  child  of  her  own,  upon 
whose  fat  shoulders  the  parents'  shortcomings  in  sis 
terly  affection  were  laid. 

"  You  know  for  yourself,  Phemie,  how  impossible 
it  is  to  get  out  when  one  has  a  child  upon  her  hands 
— and  think  of  my  live ! "  Emily  would  exclaim, 
pathetically. 

"  And  my  two !  babies,  both  of  them ! "  Olive 
would  supplement  her,  and  then  they  would  tap 
Ruthy's  head  and  say  they  were  "  detaining  mamma 
from  her  writing,"  and  vanish  for  another  four  or  five 
weeks.  Joe,  more  considerate,  as  he  was  more  con 
stant,  spent  an  hour  with  his  sister-in-law  every  Sab 
bath  afternoon  or  evening,  and  he  was  the  only  gen 
tleman  beside  her  Uncle  Albert  with  whom  baby  was 
acquainted.  She  would  testify  rapture  at  sight  of 
either,  ere  the  winter  was  over,  associating  both  as 
she  did  with  playthings  and  bonbons.  "  Sweets " 
were  interdicted  by  mamma  and  "  auntie,"  but  they 
were  lenient  respecting  the  delicate  comfits  and  sugar 
gingerbread  brought  into  their  presence  in  Joe's 
pockets.  They  might  confiscate  the  dainties  when 
12* 


274  PHEMIE'S  TEMPTATION. 

lie  had  gone,  but  baby  was  allowed  to  devour  them 
in  moderation  while  he  remained. 

Under  these  genial  influences  baby  grew  in  stature, 
and  when  she  had  conquered  her  aversion  to  taking 
care  of  herself — in  grace  and  sweetness  of  disposition. 
To  the  lonely  and  toiling  women,  she  was  the  "  well- 
spring"  in  an  otherwise  bleak  waste;  resting  them 
in  their  weariness;  diverting  melancholy  musings 
into  a  healthier  channel,  and  bringing  such  solace  to 
their  sore  and  yearning  hearts  as  only  little  children 
and  GOD'S  angels  are  commissioned  to  bear.  It  was 
a  hard  year  with  them,  pecuniarily.  Both  had  had 
heavy  expenses  about  the  time  of  baby's  advent,  and 
the  "  dull  seasons  "  which  recurred  at  the  end  of 
every  three  years  with  a  regularity  that  was  con 
firmatory  of  Doctor  Sampson's  theory  of  "  universal 
peeriodeecity,"  strained,  as  they  ever  do,  the  employ 
ed  more  severely  than  the  capitalist. 

"  Literature,"  said  one  who  deserves,  for  the  saying, 
to  be  enrolled  among  the  wise  ones  of  his  generation, 
"  is  a  good  staff,  but  a  poor  crutch."  Of  its  merits  in 
the  former  capacity,  let  those  who  have  stayed  their 
weary  frames  upon  it  in  the  toilsome  march  of  life, 
speak  in  warm  gratitude.  But  the  maimed  or  crip 
ple  had  better  creep  on  all  fours  than  trust  his  whole 
weight  to  the  polished  and  brittle  support. 

When  spring  opened,  and  baby  could  roll  about 
the  floor,  the  one  servant  was  dismissed,  and  the 
drudgery  of  housework  added  to  .the  labors  of  the  two 
friends.  They  achieved  these  as  they  did  the  rest — by 
patient  and  systematic  diligence.  Work  was  to  each 


PREMIE'S  TEMPTATION.  275 

a  panacea,  and  their  aims  were  the  same.  Their 
wants  were  few ;  their  habits  simple,  and  they  were 
strong  in  their  faith  in  the  Father  ;  in  their  love  for 
each  other  and  for  baby.  So  the  year  passed,  and  with 
the  opening  of  the  next,  their  prospects  brightened. 
Phemie  had  written  a  new  book.  A  publisher  of 
known  benevolence — when  benevolence  tallied  with 
his  self-interest — had  given  it  to  the  public,  and  the 
reading  public — also  benevolent — had  condescended 
to  express  itself  as  gratified  by  the  perusal.  It  was 
not  a  great  success,  "  going  off"  by  the  ten  thousand, 
faster  than  the  printing-presses  and  binderies  could 
supply  the  demands  of  ravenous  readers,  and  the  pro 
ceeds  did  not  enable  the  author  to  set  up  her  coach- 
and-four,  and  recline  for  the  rest  of  her  existence  upon 
a  satin  couch,  fanned  by  peacocks'  feathers — her  hea 
viest  duty  being  the  exertion  attendant  upon  the  ut 
terance  of  peremptory  "  Noes  !  "  to  importunate  edi 
tors  and  publishers.  Nor  did  this  second  book  bring 
in  the  returns  she  would  have  received  as  the  queen 
of  fashion  and  the  wife  of  the  popular  merchant.  I 
am  sorry  to  be  obliged  to  add  that  it  would  have  sold 
better  had  scandal  been  more  busy  with  her  name 
than  with  her  husband's  ;  if  she  had  run. away  from 
him  and  not  he  deserted  her ;  if,  instead  of  living  in 
a  shabby  little  house,  working  for  her  daily  bread,  and 
seeing  nobody,  she  had  inhabited  a  handsome  suite  of 
rooms  at  the  expense  of  some  "  gallant,  gay  Lothario  " 
about  town,  and  her  volume  had  been  advertised  as 
an  autobiography.  There  was  nothing  autobiographi 
cal  about  it,  decided  those  whe  were  familiar  with 


276  PHEMIWS  TEMPTATION. 

the  leading  events  of  her  life,  and  even  the  philan 
thropic  publisher  hinted  that  he  had  expected  "  some 
thing  more  sensational,  more  taking,  knowing  what 
materials  must  be  in  her  possession,  and  that  truth 
was  stranger  than  fiction  " — a  quotation,  which  every 
one  who  essays  to  convey  truth  through  the  medium 
of  parables  has  heard  until  he  is  ready  to  wish  that 
the  man  who  said  it  first  had  been  decapitated  before 
it  quite  escaped  his  tongue. 

But  the  book  had  a  steady  sale,  being  interpene 
trated  with  the  writer's  hearty  love  of  truth ;  her 
sympathy  with  the  lowly  and  oppressed,  and  her 
charity  for  the  erring ;  her  earnest  desire  to  do  good, 
and  to  lead  the  hearts  of  all — the  wrong- doer  and  the 
wronged ;  the  lofty  and  the  humbled ;  the  wise  and 
the  weak — to  the  Author  of  Goodness,  Strength,  and 
Love.  "When  the  knowledge  dawned  upon  her  that 
the  mission  of  her  waif  was,  in  some  degree,  accom 
plished,  she  "  thanked  GOD  and  took  courage."  There 
was  many  an  Appii  Forum  in  her  pilgrimage. 

They  had  spent  two  Christmases  in  the  corner 
house,  and  the  eve  of  the  third  had  come.  There 
were  extraordinary  preparations  in  the  small  estab 
lishment  for  the  anniversary.  Albert  was  to  spend  it 
with  them  as  he  had  done  the  two  former,  and  Uncle 
Joe  had  signified  his  intention  of  bringing  around 
little  Joe,  and  maybe  Oliver,  on  Christmas  afternoon 
to  play  with  Ruth,  Auntie  had  taken  great  pains  to 
enlighten  Ruth  as  to  the  being  and  business  of  Santa 
Glaus,  and  her  stockings  were  to  be  hung  by  the  sit 
ting-room  mantel  before  she  was  put  to  bed  that  night. 


PREMIERS  TEMPTATION.  277 

Phemie  had  worked  hard  since  sunrise,  upon  an  ar 
ticle  she  had  engaged  should  be  in  the  printer's  hands 
by  six  o'clock  p.  M.  It  was  a  Christmas  story  for  a 
sprightly  little  Daily,  and  she  would  be  well  paid  for 
it.  Like  Miss  Darcy,  she  did  "  piece-work,"  but  only 
occasionally.  Thus  far,  her  reputation  as  an  author 
was  of  a  higher  grade  than  her  friend's.  Her  servi 
ces  were  sought  with  greater  eagerness,  and  her  con 
tributions  commanded  better  prices. 

"  You  will  never  sink  into  a  literary  pack-horse," 
the  elder  lady  would  say  in  unselfish  gratification. 
"  But  while  pack-horses  can  be  useful,  I  do  not  re 
pine." 

Baby  had  been  preternaturally  good  for  several 
days.  She  was  in  perfect  training  by  this  time,  or  as 
perfect  as  an  only  child  could  be,  who  was  the  idol 
of  two  loving  women.  Yet  there  was  something 
plaintive  in  the  quietude  that  fell  upon  her  whenever 
mamma's  desk  was  wheeled  up  to  the  window ;  in 
the  docility  with  which  she  would  betake  herself  to 
her  play-corner,  and  turn  over  picture  books  ;  build 
block  houses,  or  nurse  her  doll,  whispering  her  baby 
prattle  all  the  while,  lest  she  should  disturb  the 
writer.  "  Baby  been  dood,  auntie  !  Baby  didn't  'peak 
a  word  to-day  ! "  was  her  usual  report  to  Miss  Darcy, 
when  the  summons  to  dinner  unloosed  her  tongue ; 
a  naive  description  of  her  unbabylike  habits  it  always 
saddened  the  mother's  heart  to  hear. 

In  compassion  to  both,  Miss  Darcy  would,  when 
ever  her  own  work  was  not  pressing,  beg  that  she 
might  go  with  her  down  to  the  "  Office,"  and  her  vi- 


278  PREMIE'S  TEMPTATION. 

sitors  were,  long  since,  used  to  the  pretty  picture  of 
the  child  ensconced  under  the  tall  desk  keeping  baby- 
house,  or  entrenching  herself  behind  laboriously-con 
structed  ramparts  of  severe-looking  volumes  that  ap 
peared  miserably  stiff  and  ill  at  ease  under  her  chubby 
hands.  But  auntie  had  been  busy  this  week  as  well 
as  mamma — so  busy  that  Ruth  had  not  had  one  race 
over  the  defaced  oil-cloth,  and  the  dry  tomes  dozed  un 
molested  upon  the  shelves,  save  when  one  was  jerked 
out  and  fluttered  hurriedly  as  the  owner  sought  a 
passage  bearing  upon  the  subject  she  had  in  hand. 
Altogether,  baby  had  a  stupid  time  of  it  until  mamma 
took  a  long  buff  envelope  from  a  table  drawer,  and 
smiled  across  the  room  at  the  little  watcher,  who  had 
exhausted  the  resources  of  toys  and  pictures,  and  sat, 
half  asleep,  upon  a  cushion,  her  hands  clasped  over 
her  apron — a  comical,  yet  lovely,  impersonation  of  pa 
tience.  Ruth  knew  wrhat  the  envelope  meant  as  well 
as  her  mother  did,  and  laughed  out  in  her  glee. 

"  Most  done,  mamma  ? "  she  cried,  jumping  up  and 
trotting  over  to  her  as  fast  as  the  fat  legs  could  carry 
her. 

"Yes,  my  darling  !  Now  mamma  will  call  Sylvia 
and  let  her  play  with  you  here  for  awhile.  Mamma 
is  going  out  to  see  Santa  Glaus,  and  tell  him  about 
baby's  stockings." 

Sylvia  was  the  half-grown  daughter  of  a  seamstress 
formerly  employed  by  Mrs.  Hart,  at  Miss  Darcy's 
recommendation,  and  had  been,  recently  received  into 
the  family  as  maid-of-a-little-of-all-work.  She  was  a 
cleanly,  good-tempered  girl,  and  was  often  intrusted 


PREMIERS  TEMPTATION.  279 

with  the  guardianship  of  the  little  one  when  the 
mother  was  obliged  to  leave  her. 

The  evening  was  bright,  but  very  cold.  The  stars 
overhead  and  the  twinkling  of  multitudinous  lamps 
on  the  earth  could  not  win  the  pedestrian  to  obli- 
viousness  of  the  stinging  air  that  changed  her  breath 
to  fine  snow-flakes,  and  pricked  into  her  face  like  a 
shower  of  cambric  needles.  She  had  a  long  walk 
before  her,  and  was  rather  glad-  that  the  intense  cold 
compelled  her  to  move  rapidly,  gave  her  something 
to  think  of  beside  the  ghosts  of  other  holidays  that 
trooped  about  her  at  sight  of  the  illuminated  windows, 
the  noisy,  happy  throng  that  filled  the  sidewalk,  and 
the  family  groups  within  the  gayly-decorated  shops. 
The  Christmases  of  her  childhood,  the  more  modest 
celebrations  of  the  day  in  the  humble  home  of  her 
widowed  mother,  where  every  gift  was  purchased  by 
self-denial,  and  was  the  dearer  to  the  recipient,  more 
blessed  to  the  donor  that  this  was  so  ;  the  Christmas 
after  Charlotte's  death  when  Robert  Hart  had  writ 
ten  to  her,  renewing  his  suit,  and  the  world  had  sud 
denly  glowed  with  radiance,  as  did  the  fields  of  Beth 
lehem  under  the  brightness  of  the  angelic  cohort;  the 
Christmas  in  Merry  England  that  succeeded  their  mar 
riage,  the  two  gayest,  most  unhappy  of  all  she  had 
passed  in  the  mansion  of  which  she  was  nominally 
mistress,  each  craved  a  thought  and  a  sigh. 

It  seemed  so  long  since  the  latest  of  these  !  Robert 
had  expressed  his  intention  of  dining  at  his  own  table, 
"  enfamille"  he  said,  with  a  sneer  that  was  to  the 
childless  wife  a  reproach  to  her  loneliness.  But  she 


280  PREMIERS  TEMPTATION. 

had  hailed  his  wish  as  a  sign  of  returning  love  for 
home  and  her,  declined  all  other  invitations  for  the 
day  and  evening,  and  in  the  afternoon  dressed  herself 
with  uncommon  care,  and  sat  in  the  parlor  awaiting 
his  coming  until  the  elegant  dinner  she  had  ordered 
was  spoiled  by  the  delay,  and  she  was  faint  to  sickness 
with  inanition  and  suspense.  At  eleven  o'clock  she 
had  gone  to  her  room  for  the  night,  but  it  was  nearly 
one  before  he  came  in.  She  never  asked  what  had 
kept  him  away,  and  he  did  not  allude  to  the  matter. 
He  had  either  forgotten  his  voluntary  engagement, 
or  been  tempted  by  more  attractive  society  to  break 
it,  and  did  not  deign  to  account  to  her  for  his  whims. 
The  fear  of  being  ruled  by  her  was  always  dominant 
in  his  mind. 

"Poor  Robert !  how  little  he  knew  me  ! "  she  mut 
tered,  still  holding  on  her  rapid  way  up  the  steep 
street  whereon  was  the  office  of  the  lively  Daily. 
"Where  is  he  now?  Do  they  keep  Christmas  in 
Australia,  I  wonder  ?  Perhaps  he  is  no  longer  there." 

She  had  not  heard  once  from  him  since  she  read  his 
cruel  farewell  letter.  Mr.  Mallory  had  told  Miss 
Darcy  that  he  had  tracked  him  to  an  English  steamer, 
and,  subsequently,  had  reliable  information  to  the 
effect  that  he  had  sailed  from  England  for  Australia. 
There,  all  trace  ceased.  There  was  no  incentive  to 
continue  the  investigation — at  least  on  the  part  of 
his  late  associate  in  business.  He  had  wound  up  the 
affairs  of  the  concern  by  a  sharp  compromise  with 
the  creditors,  and,  having  aired  his  rather  unsavory 
commercial  reputation  by  six  months  of  foreign  travel 


PHEMIE'S  TEMPTATfON.  281 

with  his  wife  and  children,  had  returned  to  give  his 
sister  Clara  in  marriage  to  an  elderly  millionaire ; 
established  himself  in  another  branch  of  trade,  and 
was  reputed  to  be  making  money.  The  question 
in  the  minds  of  many  as  to  whether  he  had  ever  lost 
any,  in  no  wise  hindered  the  success  of  the  new  enter 
prise.  Phemie  never  met  him,  or  any  of  his  family — 
rarely  thought  of  them.  She  was  too  busy  to  waste 
reflection  upon  unprofitable  subjects.  But  the  me 
mory  of  her  husband  was  with  her  continually.  She 
could  as  soon  have  forgotten  her  existence  as  ceased 
to  think  of  and  to  pray  for  him.  Purified  by  sorrow, 
reconciled  by  the  pain  of  separation  and  tender  recol 
lections  of  what  she  had  been  to  him,  he  would  be 
given  back  to  her  in  the  Father's  good  time.  It  was 
less  a  hope  than  a  conviction  with  her  that  this  must 
be — a  belief  wrought  by  the  faith  whose  "  I  will  not 
let  Thee  go !  "  must  prevail  in  the  end.  She  did  not, 
in  her  most  despondent  moments,  sit  down  and  weep 
that  her  life  had  been  a  failure.  She  had  done  her 
best.  The  result  had  been  as  GOD  willed. 

The  editor  was  in  his  sanctum,  and  the  cheer  of 
Christmas  Eve  was  in  his  lank  visage  as  he  com 
mended  her  promptitude ;  paid  her  for  her  article, 
with  the  hope  that  she  would  be  able  to  favor  him 
with  another  very  soon,  and  offered  her,  in  advance, 
the  compliments  of  the  season. 

The  wind  was  colder  than  ever  when  she  again 
dared  the  outer  air.  She  stopped,  with  an  audible 
shudder,  at  the  foot  of  the  office  steps,  and  tied  her 
scarf  more. closely  about  her  throat.  The  side-walk 


282  PHBMIE'S  TEMPTATION. 

was  narrow,  and  a  man,  wrapped  in  a  shawl,  with  a 
comforter  over  his  chin,  stepped  off  the  curb-stone 
into  the  gutter,  in  brushing  past  her,  grumbling  some 
thing  that  might  have  been  either  an  apology  or  an 
execration.  Whatever  it  was,  she  bent  her  head 
slightly,  in  token  that  she  put  the  more  charitable 
construction  upon  his  abruptness,  and  pressed  toward 
the  thronged  thoroughfare  at  the  lower  end  of  the 
steep  cross-street.  She  was  obliged  to  walk  more 
slowly  when  she  gained  it,  and,  despite  her  sadness, 
was  interested  and  diverted  by  the  motley  crowd,  the 
snatches  of  conversation  that  fell  upon  her  ear  from 
one  and  another  of  the  merry  groups,  the  excited  gazers 
through  the  plate-glass  that  screened  the  confection 
er's  and  toy-seller's  wares  fnom  lawless  fingers,  and 
the  universal  good-humor  animating  the  moving  and 
meeting  masses.  She,  too,  had  her  purchases  to 
make — a  few  trifles  for  Ruth  and  the  little  Bonneys, 
who  had  sent,  through  their  father,  presents  of  con 
siderable  value  to  their  cousin.  She  was  standing  as 
near  the  counter  of  a  toy  merchant  as  she  could  get, 
awaiting  her  turn  to  be  served,  and  whiling  away  the 
time  by  scanning  the  various  phases  of  infantine  de 
light  and  parental  indulgence  that  were  the  principal 
features  of  the  lively  scene,  when,  chancing  to  glance 
toward  the  window,  she  met  the  fixed  stare  of  a  pair 
of  dark  eyes  fastened,  not  upon  the  attractive  contents 
of  the  shop,  but  upon  herself.  They  were  gone  with 
the  visible  start  that  betrayed  her  consciousness  of 
their  scrutiny,  and  she  had  time,  before  the  salesman 
could  attend  to  her,  to  reason  herself  into  disbelief 


PREMIERS  TEMPTATION.  283 

• 
of  the  reality  of  the  apparition,  to  quiet  the  thrill — 

partly  apprehension,  partly  recognition,  that  had  set 
pulses  and  thoughts  flying  dizzily. 

"  My  fancies  are  shaped  by  my  wishes,  to-night," 
she  said,  inwardly,  with  a  smile  of  self-pity.  "  I  have 
imagined  the  same  thing  a  hundred  times  before,  and 
nothing  came  of  it." 

Her  parcels  were  bulky,  although  not  heavy,  and 
required  so  much  of  her  attention  for  the  rest  of  her 
walk  that  she  paid  no  heed  to  casual  encounters.  Al 
bert  answered  her  ring  at  the  door.  He  had  arrived 
since  she  went  out,  and,  familiar  with  her  step,  has 
tened  into  the  hall  from  the  dining-room  on  the  first 
floor.  "  Your  face  is  like  ice !  "  he  exclaimed,  as  he 
kissed  her.  "  It  is  piercing  cold,  isn't  it  ? " 

"  Yes  ;  but  a  glorious  night !  "  Phemie  cast  a  part 
ing  glance  at  the  dark-blue  vault  above  her,  brave  in 
its  Christmas  jewels. 

Albert  could  not  see  these,  but  he  heard  what  she 
could  not — the  momentary  halt  of  a  footstep  at  the  lit 
tle  gate.  Then  it  passed  on.  "  Who  is  that,  Phemie  ? " 
he  whispered,  resisting  her  motion  to  shut  the  door. 

"Who?     Where?" 

"  The  man  that  went  by  just  now.  Can  you  see 
him  ? " 

"  He  has  just  turned  the  corner.  I  can  see  his  hat 
above  the  fence.  Why  do  you  want  to  know  ?" 

"I  thought  it  might  be  an  acquaintance,"  he 
returned,  evasively.  "  But  the  house  is  filling  with 
the  frosty  air,  and  Bonnie  Ruthie  is  wild  with  impa 
tience  to  see  you." 


284  PREMIE'S  TEMPTATION. 

She  sat  upon  Miss  Darcy's  knee  before  tne  blazing 
grate  in  the  dining-room,  her  eyes  dancing,  her 
cheeks  and  lips  vivid  with  rosy  excitement.  Auntie 
was  in  the  midst  of  the  fiftieth  repetition  of  that 
never-to-be-worn-out  nursery  classic,  "  'Twas  the 
night  before  Christmas." 

"  I  wonder  that  you  lend  your  countenance  to  such 
idle  fables ! "  said  Albert,  relieving  his  sister  of  her 
bundles,  and,  after  forcing  her  down  into  an  arm 
chair,  untying  her  bonnet,  unpinning  her  shawl,  and 
rubbing  her  benumbed  fingers. 

He  was  the  only  person  who  ever  petted  her  now, 
and,  viewing  her  as  his  earthly  all,  he  bestowed 
upon  her  love  and  caresses  in  bountiful  measure. 

Miss  Darcy  laughed  good-humoredly.  "  Don't  hit 
a  fellow  when  he  is  down,  Bertie.  You  are  as  great 
a  slave  as  I  am,  and  you  can't  deny  it." 

"  I  don't  want  to.  I  glory  in  my  thraldom."  He 
had  drawn  his  sister's  head  .to  his  shoulder  as  he  sat 
beside  her,  and  she  smiled  wearily,  but  happily,  up 
into  his  face.  "  First  the  mother,  then  the  daughter 
have  led  me  in  silken  chains  until  I  have  forgotten 
how  it  feels  to  be  my  own  master." 

Phemie  put  up  her  hand  to  clasp  his,  and  Miss 
Darcy  resumed  her  recitation. 

"  As  I  drew  in  my  head  and  -was  turning  around, 
Down  the  chimney  St.  Nicholas  came  with  a  bound." 

"  Good  Heavens !  " 

She  had  put  the  child  down  and  stood,  facing  the 


PHEMIKS  TEMPTATION.  285 

window,  with  a  look  that  terrified  Phemie,  knowing, 
as  she  did,  her  friend's  strength  of  nerve  and  habit 
of  self-control.  She  turned  in  the  same  direction, 
but  saw  nothing  except  the  blank  panes  of  the  upper 
sash,  and,  across  the  lower,  the  wire  blind  that 
protected  the  interior  of  the  room  from  the  gaze  of 
passers-by.  "What  did  you  see?"  she  inquired. 
"  There  is  nothing  there  now." 

"  I  thought  I  saw  a  face  peering  in  above  the  blind 
— a  man's  face!"  replied  the  other.  "It  startled 
me !  Yet  I  am  not  easily  frightened.  The  shut 
ters  should  have  been  closed  at  dark,  but  I  had  a 
foolish  notion  about  letting  the  light  of  happy  fire 
sides  shine  into  the  darker  world  without.  I  did  not 
like  to  cheat  any  poor  homeless  wretch  out  of  the 
glimpse  of  a  Christmas  blaze." 

She  rallied  from  her  fright,  and  spoke  in  a  mock 
dramatic  tone,  as  ridiculing  her  bit  of  sentimentalism. 
•"I  will  close  them  now,"  said  Phemie,  rising.  "Your 
man's  face  probably  belonged  to  some  mischievous 
boy  who  clambered  upon  the  window-sill.  The  streets 
are  alive  with  them." 

Miss  Darcy  held  her  back.  "  You  shall  do  no 
such  thing.  I  will  attend  to  it.  The  young  scara 
mouch  may  be  lurking  there  still,  ready  to  spring  at 
whomsoever  may  look  out.  He  won't  terrify  me  into 
hysterics." 

She  undid  and  removed  the  wire  blind,  raised  the 
sash,  and  took  a  deliberate  survey  of  the  premises. 
The  gas  lights  were  bright,  the  pavement  and  yard 
empty. 


286  PHEMIE'S  TEMPTATION. 

"All  right!"  she  said.  "He  is,  I  suppose,  like 
Chevy  Slyme,  waiting  around  the  corner,  concocting 
some  other  brilliant  scheme." 

She  finished  her  story  to  Ruthie,  put  the  lumps 
of  coal  together  in  the  grate,  wondered  why  Sylvia 
did  not  bring  in  supper,  and  left  the  room,  ostensibly 
to  hurry  her  movements.  In  the  hall  she  turned 
toward  the  front  door  instead  of  the  kitchen,  unbolted 
it  noiselessly,  and  went  out  down  the  steps  to  the 
gate.  A  tall  man,  wrapped  in  a  shawl,  was  walking 
slowly  up  the  street.  His  back  was  toward  her,  and 
his  gait  was  deliberate  and  natural,  but  she  could 
have  been  sure  that  he  had  just  left  the  shadow  of  the 
wall  inclosing  her  little  garden.  He  stooped  slightly, 
and  wore  a  slouched  hat,  and  it  might  have  been  a 
freak  of  her  excited  imagination  that  detected  some 
thing  strangely  familiar  in  his  height  and  carriage. 
While  she  leaned  upon  the  gate  and  watched  him  a 
policeman  came  up. 

"  Anything  wrong,  Miss  Darcy  ? " 

He  knew  and  respected  her,  as  did  most  of  the  so- 
called  lower  classes,  and  put  the  query  with  an  honest 
desire  to  serve  her. 

"  Not  that  I  know  of,  Johnson." 

But  her  evident  indecision  made  him  stay  to  hear 
more.  If  she  had  been  wrong  in  her  impression  that 
the  face  at  the  window  was  not  that  of  a  stranger,  if 
the  impertinent  Paiil  Pry  should  prove  to  be  a  burglar, 
misinformed  as  to  the  value  of  the  booty  to  be  obtained 
by  effecting  an  entrance  into  the  lowly  dwelling,  who 
should  return  in  the  dead  of  night  to  carry  out  his  de- 


PREMIE'S  TEMPTATION.  287 

signs,  would  she  not  blame  the  absurd  scruples  that 
had  hindered  her  from  putting  the  officer  on  his  guard? 

"  I  imagined  that  I  saw  a  man  hanging  around  the 
house  this  evening," she  said;  "I  may  have  been  mis 
taken,  but  you  had  better  keep  an  eye  upon  us  when 
it  grows  late  enough  for  honest  people  to  be  in  bed." 

"  I  will,  madam.     These  are  ticklish  times." 

They  exchanged  a  friendly  "  Good-night,"  and  Miss 
Darcy  returned  to  her  tea-table  and  her  family.  The 
meal  was  merry  with  baby's  playfulness  and  precocious 
sayings  ;  Albert's  enjoyment  of  his  holiday,  and 
Phemie's  delight  in  "  her  children."  The  melancholy 
thoughts  of  an  hour  before  had  fled  before  the  reviv 
ing  eifect  of  the  meeting  with  her  brother ;  the  cheer 
and  warmth  of  home,  and  the  happiness  of  "  Bonnie 
Ruthie."  She  proved  her  right  to  the  nickname  her 
uncle  had  bestowed,  to  him,  as  to  those  who  could 
watch  her  winsome  beauty. 

u  Let  her  sit  up ! "  he  pleaded,  when  Phemie  dis 
mounted  the  tricksy  sprite  from  his  shoulder,  with  the 
information  that  it  was  bedtime.  "  It  is  Christmas — 
remember ! " 

"  Only  Christmas  Eve,"  was  the  reply.  "  To-morrow 
night,  Joey  and  Oliver  will  take  supper  with  us.  She 
may  sit  up  an  hour  later  than  usual,  then.  ]STo,  no, 
uncle  !  '  Early  to  bed  and  early  to  rise ! '  -And  I 
prophesy  a — to  us — lamentably  early  unsealing  of 
those  bright  eyes,  in  the  morning.  Now,  auntie, 
uncle — the  solemn  ceremony  of  hanging  up  the  stock 
ings  will  be  performed  up-stairs.  Will  you  assist  ? " 

The  cavalcade  moved  in  due  order — auntie  leading 


288  PHEMI&S  TEMPTATION. 

the  way,  with  baby  in  her  arms.  The  stockings  were 
suspended  by  baby's  fingers,  that  trembled  while  they 
did  it.  Then  she  said  her  prayers  at  mamma's  knee, 
the  others  standing  by,  in  rapt  attention  upon  the 
lisped  petitions — after  which  uncle  and  auntie  kissed 
her  red,  wet  lips,  still  apart  with  smiles ;  said,  in  one 
breath,  u  God  bless  her ! "  and  left  her  to  be  undressed 
and  put  to  bed  by  her  mother. 

The  crooked  stairway  ran  in  a  demented  manner, 
close  down  to  the  front  door,  and  Miss  Darcy  and  her 
guest  were  upon  the  lowest  step,  when  they  paused  at 
sound  of  angry  tones  without.  A  brisk  altercation 
was  going  on  in  the  yard,  and  while  Albert's  face  took 
on  the  ashy  hue  of  rage  or  fear,  as  one  of  the  speakers 
raised  his  voice  in  an  oath  that  was  distinctly  audible 
to  those  within,  Miss  Darcy  unlocked  the  door  and 
threw  it  open.  The  policeman,  Johnson,  was  there, 
with  a  tall  man,  whose  shawl  had  been  plucked  or 
had  fallen  back  from  his  shoulders,  and  whose  eyes 
gleamed  fury  from  the  shadow  of  his  slouched  hat. 

"  What  does  this  mean  ? "  said  Miss  Darcy,  authori 
tatively. 

"  I  leave  you  to  say,  madam,  what  it  does  mean ! " 
answered  the  policeman,  warmly.  "  When  a  man  as 
calls  himself  a  gentleman  and  a  visitor  to  your  fain'ly, 
first  tries  the  back  gate,  then  tiptoes  to  look  over  the 
garden  wall,  and  then  sneaks  in  at  the  front  gate,  and 
is  about  to  peek  in  between  the  slats  of  the  kitchen- 
blinds,  and  when  I  steps  up  and  requests  him,  in  a 
polite  way,  to  move  on,  flies  out  and  cusses  me — you 
know,  yourself,  Miss  Darcy,  he's  up  to  no  good !  You 


PHEMIE'S  TEMPTATION.  289 

told  me,  not  two  hours  ago,  to  keep  an  eye  on 
him." 

The  stranger  tore  off  his  comforter  and  bared  his 
head. 

"  Can  you  determine,  by  this  light,  whether  I  am 
the  person  you  wish  to  arrest,  Miss  Darcy  ? "  he 
demanded,  in  haughty  petulance. 

The  gesture  and  accent  were  enough,  had  she  not 
seen  his  face. 

"  There  is  some  mistake  here,  Johnson  !  "  was  her 
response,  uttered  with  a  certain  desolate  tremulous- 
ness  that  checked  the  man's  inclination  to  comment 
further  upon  the  behavior  of  her  acquaintance.  "  I 
know  this  gentleman.  He  has  friends  living  with 
me.  Mr.  Hart,  will  you  walk  in  ?  It  is  very  cold 
out  here." 

Johnson  touched  his  hat  in  sulky  respect  to  the 
lady,  and  Robert  followed  his  hostess  into  the  house. 
Albert  had  retreated  to  .the  supper-roorn,  and  still 
very  pale,  stood,  with  compressed  mouth  and  frown 
ing  forehead,  in  the  middle  of  the  floor,  his  hands 
behind  him.  Robert  bent  a  searching,  fiery  look 
upon  him  in  entering. 

They  had  not  met  in  three  years,  and  the  boy 
had  shot  up  into  a  man.  He  was  nearly  six  feet  in 
height,  with  marked,  handsome  features,  and  a  dark 
moustache,  that,  with  the  pensive  cast  of  countenance 
common  to  the  sightless,  and  the  dignity  acquired  in 
the  lecture-room,  made  him  look  fully  five  years  older 
than  he  was.  In  her  perturbation  the  idea  that  the 
senior  brother-in-law  would  not  recognize  the  other 
18 


290  PHEMIW8  TEMPTATION. 

did  not  occur  to  Miss  Darcy  until  Hart  wheeled 
angrily  upon  her,  with — "  May  I  trouble  you  to 
introduce  this  gentleman  to  me,  madam.  Unless  I 
am  mistaken,  my  business  with  him  should  be  settled 
first  of  all." 

He  had  his  hand  in  his  bosom,  and  his  malignant 
sneer  stilled  the  blood  at  Miss  Darcy's  heart. 

"  It  is  Albert  Rowland  !  "  she  said  hastily.  "  I 
supposed  that  you  had  recognized  him,  or  I  should 
have  told  you  who  he  was." 

u  Is  it  possible  ? "  the  menacing  look  passed  through 
the  degrees  of  incredulity  and  conviction  into  an 
embarrassed  attempt  at  a  smile.  "  I  was  near  mak 
ing  an  awkward  blunder,"  he  said,  ungraciously.  "  It 
is  well  for  you,  young  man,  that  I  found  out  my  mis 
take  in  time.  Well !  have  you  no  welcome  for  your 
sister's  husband  after  his  three  years  of  absence  ?  " 

"  I  shall  be  better  able  to  answer  your  question 
when  I  have  heard  your  apologv  for  your  desertion 

«/  i.  Ot/  •/ 

of  her,  and  your  silence  during  those  three  years," 
retorted  Albert,  without  changing  his  position  except 
by  rearing  his  head  defiantly. 

He  resembled  his  sister  so  strongly,  as  he  did  this, 
that  Miss  Darcy  involuntarily  glanced  at  Hart  to 
note  the  effect  of  the  likeness  upon  him.  It  did  not 
soften  him,  for  he  turned  from  the  boy  with  a  short, 
disagreeable  laugh. 

"  Since  I  am  likely  to  wait  some  time  for  a  brotherly 
greeting  from  one  who  was  formerly  a  pensioner 
upon  my  bounty,  may  I  ask  you,  Miss  Darcy,  to 
notify  Mrs.  Hart — if  she  still  owns  the  name — that  I 


PHEMIE'S  TEMPTATION.  291 

am  here?  I  put  no  *force  upon  her  inclinations.  She 
need  not  see  me  if  she  does  not  wish  it.  If  her 
requisitions  are  the  same  as  those  of  this,  her  doughty 
knight,  she  had  better  excuse  herself  from  coming 
down."  He  threw  himself  upon  a  chair,  his  back 
toward  Albert. 

"  Mrs.  Hart  will  be  glad  to  see  you,"  Miss  Darcy 
controlled  herself  to  say.  "She  has  always  found 
excuses  for  your  going,  and  your  prolonged  ab 
sence." 

Justice  to  Phemie  would  not  let  her  say  less. 
The  intolerable  heart-faintness  that  seized  her,  pre 
vented  her  from  saying  more.  She  went  out  into  the 
hall ;  up  the  zigzag  staircase,  and  pushed  open  the 
door  of  the  snug  sitting-room,  where  Phemie  sat  in 
the  dusky  glow  of  the  firelight,  crooning  the  sweet 
est  of  cradle-songs  to  her  babe. 

"  G-ently  rest  I  the  night-stars  gleam  ; 
Soft  thy  slumbers,  sweet  thy  dream  ; 
Fear  no  harm,  for  I  will  keep 
Watch  with  Love,  while  thou'rt  asleep. 
Oh,  hush  thee,  now,  in  slumbers  mild, 
While  watch  I  keep,  oh.  sleep,  my  child  I " 


CHAPTER  XY. 

OBERT  HART  had  never  been  to  Aus 
tralia.  His  wife  even  doubted,  from  stray 
hints  that  escaped  him,  from  time  to  time, 
whether  he  had  ever  left  the  American 
Continent.  He  had  been  "  knocking  about 
the  world,"  he  told  her,  cavalierly,  "  and  he  wouldn't 
be  bored  with  questions  as  to  how  'he  had  spent  his 
time/'  He  did  not  reciprocate  the  forbearance  he 
exacted  from  her  in  this  regard.  He  required  a  suc 
cinct  account  of  her  mode  of  life  and  occupations 
while  left  to  her  own  resources,  and  so  far  from  ex 
hibiting  repentance  at  learning  how  she  had  strug 
gled  to  secure  her  present  footing  of  comparative 
comfort,  concealed  but  poorly  his  gratification  that 
she  had  found  the  task  of  self-support  no  easy  one. 

"Almost  as  irksome  as  dependence  upon  a  hus 
band  for  a  livelihood,  wasn't  it  ?  "  he  said,  tweaking 
her  ear.  as  she  finished  her  story.  "  Ah,  little  one, 
men  may  be  great  fools,  but  women  are  greater !  " 

The  blood  mounted  to  Phemie's  temples,  but  she 
Baid  nothing. 


PHEMIE'S  TEMPTATION.  293 

The  ideal  Robert,  set  in  the  subdued  light  of  mis 
fortune  and  unjust  obloquy  ;  touched  and  retouched 
by  her  fond  fancy,  had  borne  the  symmetrical  pro 
portions  and  noble  lineaments  of  her  early  love. 
For  him  she  had  longed,  and  looked,  and  waited ; 
him  she  was  prepared  to  receive  into  the  arms  of  her 
wifely  affection ;  to  serve  and  to  obey  for  the  re 
mainder  of  their  united  lives.  The  return  of  the 
real  Robert  broke  the  charm.  She  did  not  know  the 
shabby-genteel  loafer  who  presented  himself  as  a 
claimant  for  her  loving  duty — a  man  prematurely 
old  ;  broken  in  health,  and  with  the  unmistakable 
taint  of  profligacy  stamped  upon  his  features,  his 
bearing,  and  his  language.  He  had  deteriorated 
fearfully  since  the  date  of  his  disappearance  below 
the  horizon  of  fashionable  life.  Never  inherently 
strong,  when  he  was  once  thrown  upon  a  downward 
grade,  there  were  no  brakes  ready  to  his  hand  to  keep 
him  from  rushing  to  ruin  with  headlong  speed. 
Whatever  money  he  had  carried  away  with  him,  he 
had  brought  none  back.  Drawn  by  some  strange 
fascination  to  the  scene  of  his  former  prosperity  and 
subsequent  humiliation,  he  had  tossed  about  on  the 
turbulent  tide  of  Bohemian  life  for  two  days,  unre 
cognized  by  a  single  old  acquaintance,  until  he  ran 
against  his  wife  at  the  door  of  the  printing-office. 
He  knew  her  on  the  instant,  and  dogged  her  home. 
It  was  his  face  which  Miss  Darcy  had  espied  gazing 
in  upon  the  happy  family  group. 

Phemie  recoiled,  with  a  cry  of  virtuous  horror— a 
swift  upspringing  of  righteous  auger  and  womanly 


294:  PHEMI&S  TEMPTATION. 

revulsion  of  feeling  against  the  author  of  the  insult, 
when  he  told  her  he  had  not  known  Albert,  and  be 
lieved  she  had  married  a  second  time,  thinking  he 
would  never  return,  and  that  the  child  in  Miss  Darcy's 
lap  was  the  offspring  of  the  iniquitous  union. 

"  Sit  still !  "  ordered  her  husband,  laughing  im 
moderately  at  her  blanched  face,  blazing  eyes,  and 
frantic  effort  to  free  herself  from  the  embrace  that 
held  her  down  upon  his  knee.  "The  mistake  was  a 
very  natural  one,"  he  pursued,  when  he  could  speak. 
"  Other  women  have  comforted  themselves  with  new 
loves  in  a  shorter  time  than  you  had  for  consolation. 
And,  recollecting  Miss  Darcy's  partiality  for  isms, 
how  was  I  to  know  that  you  and  she  had  not  imbibed 
Free  Love  notions,  and  carried  them  into  practice  ? 
By  the  way,  that  brother  of  yours  is  a  handsome 
puppy,  but  a  confoundedly  insolent  one." 

Phemie  ceased  to  struggle.  "  Is  this  Robert  Hart  ? " 
she  said,  in  scornful  incredulity.  "  Can  this  man,  who 
laughs  over  the  confession  of  his  doubts  of  his  wife's 
honor ;  who  ascribes  to  her  principles  and  actions  of 
which  pure  women,  who  love  their  lawful  husbands, 
cannot  hear  without  shame  and  sorrow ;  who  couples 
with  his  mention  of  these  the  name  of  his  and  her 
child;  who  defames  the  brother  to  whom  he  was 
once  a  generous  benefactor — can  this  be  he  whom  I 
used  to  love  and  respect  as  the  noblest  of  his  kind  ? 
Let  me  go,  Robert !  You  said  once — many  times — 
long  ago,  that  we  could  never  understand  one  an 
other.  I  believe  it  now ! " 

"  As  you  like ! "     Robert  released   her,  and  eyed 


PHEMIE' 8  TEMPTATION.  295 

her  contemptuously,  as  she  walked  from  him  to  the 
window  to  conceal  her  emotion.  "  You  have  not  out 
lived  your  taste  for  sham  heroics,  I  perceive.  They 
won't  go  down  with  me,  Phemie,  any  more  than  they 
used  to.  I  came  home,  determining  that  it  should 
not  be  my  fault  if  we  did  not  live  together  peaceably. 
And  here  you  are  in  a  tantrum" — an  oath — "before 
I  have  been  with  you  twenty-four  hours.  I  call  this 
deuced  unhandsome  behavior !  And  all  because, 
when — moved  by  a  desire  to  ascertain  if  the  coast  is 
clear,  before  introducing  myself  to  your  presence — I 
peep  in  at  the  window,  and  seeing  a  good-looking 
buck  of  a  fellow,  with  his  arm  about  your  waist,  I 
am  disposed  to  be  jealous  of  him,  and  doubtful  of 
your  constancy." 

"  We  will  drop  the  subject,  if  you  please ! "  said 
Phemie,  without  turning  around. 

"  Agreed !  Start  your  own  topics.  I  am  com 
plaisant — only  remarking,  as  a  finale  to  this  chapter, 
that  public  characters — especially  public  women — 
are  usually  less  squeamish." 

They  were  in  Phemie's  sitting-room,  and  it  was 
Christmas  afternoon.  Ruth,  worn  out  with  play  and 
excitement,  was  asleep  in  the  next  room.  Joe  Bonney 
had  come  in  after  dinner,  to  take  Albert  to  see  Emily. 
If  one  had  looked  into  the  "  office,"  he  would  have 
seen  Miss  Darcy  at  her  desk,  her  head  bent  upon  her 
crossed  arms,  in  an  attitude  of  deep  dejection ;  her 
heart  racked  with  fears  for  the  welfare  of  hef  trea 
sures,  now  that  the  husband  and  father  had  assumed 
the  guardianship  of  them.  Had  she  surmised  the 


296  PREMIE'S  TEMPTATION. 

import  of  the  dialogue  going  on  between  the  two  up 
stairs,  she  could  not  have  foreseen  more  distinctly  the 
results  of  the  prodigal's  return. 

"While  I  think  of  it,"  resumed  Hart,  presently, 
seeing  that  his  wife  made  no  motion  to  continue  the 
conversation,  "  let  me  inquire  who  is  the  head  of  this 
concern." 

"I  do  not  understand  you,"  said  Phemie,  dis 
tantly. 

"  This  house — this  Cottage  Queer !  Who  supplies 
most  capital — you,  or  Miss  Darcy?" 

"  We  share  the  expense.  Mine  is  heavier  than 
hers,  of  course,  as  I  have  two  to  support." 

"  Who  pays  the  rent  ?  " 

"  We  divide  it  equally." 

Phemie  did  not  shirk  the  cross-examination.  He 
was  her  legal  proprietor,  and  had  the  right  to  know 
everything  pertaining  to  her  affairs. 

;:  What  possessed  you  to  go  into  business  with  her, 
beside  the  wish  to  affront  me  by  consorting  with  a 
woman  who,  you  know,  was  more  obnoxious  to  me 
than  any  other  person  alive  ? " 

"  I  did  not  seek  her.  She  came  to  me  with  help 
and  sympathy  when  everybody  else  forsook  me.  She 
was  mother  and  sister  to  me  when  my  own  mother 
and  sisters  looked  askance  at  me.  She  has  cherished 
me  and  my  child  with  a  love  surpassing  that  of  pa 
rent  or  friend.  She  wrould  have  maintained  us  en 
tirely,  if  I  would  have  permitted  it." 

"  It  is  a  pity  you  did  not.  I  have  no  doubt  the 
connection  has  been  creditable  and  profitable  to  her. 


PHEMIE'S  TEMPTATION.  297 

Rely  upon  it,  she  has  made  money  out  of  it.  Have 
you  kept  any  account  of  your  expenditures  ?  " 

"  I  have:" 

"  I  shall  examine  them,  and  see  that  you  have  not 
been  cheated.  If  this  copartnership  is  to  continue, 
you  must  have  a  written  contract.  I  have  no  confi 
dence  in  that  sly  old  maid." 

Phemie  was  silent,  but  it  was  not  the  silence  of 
submission,  such  as  her  husband  was  accustomed  to 
read  in  her  face.  He  was  nettled  to  push  her  further. 

u  Moreover,  unless  she  comports  herself  with  great 
circumspection,  she  will  have  to  clear  out.  She  can't 
lord  it  over  me  as  she  has  over  you,  as  I  shall  take  an 
early  opportunity  of  showing  her.  We  may  as  well 
come  to  an  understanding  early  as  late."  He  got  up  and 
shook  out  one  leg,  then  the  other,  with  the  old  assertion 
of  masculinity  she  remembered  so  well.  "  Do  you  hap 
pen  to  have  any  change  about  you  ? "  he  asked,  non 
chalantly.  "I  want  some  cigars,  and  I  am  going  to 
take  a  walk.  Does  that  she-dragon  of  yours  allow 
smoking  upon  her  premises  ? " 

"  You  can  smoke  in  this  room  whenever  }rou  like. 
How  much  money  do  you  want  ?  "  Phemie  pro 
duced  her  pocket-book. 

"  None  !  if  it  is  to  be  doled  out  to  me  in  that  style. 
You  can  keep  your  precious  lucre.  When  I  held  the 
purse-strings,  I  never  asked  you  how  much  or  how 
little  you  needed.  I  gave  freely  to  you  of  my  wealth 
while  it  lasted.  But  this  is  a  fair  specimen  of  the 
gratitude  of  your  sex."  He  caught  up  his  hat  in  real 
or  affected  indignation,  and  moved  toward  the  door. 


298  PEEMIKS  TEMPTATION. 

"  One  moment !  "  said  Phemie,  calmly.  "  I  re 
ceived  thirty  dollars  last  night  for  a  story  upon  which 
I  had  worked  a  week.  I  spent  five  on  my  way  home. 
The  rest  you  will  find  in  here.  The  law  gives  it  to 
you,  if  you  choose  to  take  it.  If  it  did  not,  I  should 
still  regard  it,  and  all  the  rest  of  ray  earnings  as  due 
to  you,  in  consideration  of  what  you  have  done  for 
me  in  the  past.  There  is  no  difference  of  opinion 
between  us  on  that  subject,  at  any  rate." 

She  put  the  pocket-book  into  his  hand.  "With  a 
murmur  of  "  refunding  the  loan  very  soon,"  he  took 
it  and  departed. 

The  change  which  his  coming  produced  in  the  late 
quiet  and  orderly  household,  however  offensive  it 
may  have  been  to  Miss  Darcy,  did  not  provoke  her 
to  any  manifestation  of  disapproval.  She  submitted 
to  the  delayed  breakfast ;  the  five  o'clock  dinner  ; 
the  fumes  of  tobacco  and  hot  punch  that  pervaded 
the  halls  and  staircase  whenever  he  spent  the  eve 
ning  in  his  wife's  sitting-room  ;  to  his  supercilious 
notice  of  herself  and  criticism  of  her  bills  of  fare, 
with  a  placid  .good-breeding  that  astonished  Phemie, 
conversant  as  she  was  with  the  strong  -  minded 
woman's  powers  of  self-control.  Her  admiration  and 
affection  for  her  friend  would  have  risen  into  vene 
ration  had  she  divined  how  much  severer  was  the 
test  applied  to  her  forbearance  by  Hart's  tone  to  his 
wife  and  his  slight  regard  for  their  child. 

He  was  "  on  the  look-out  for  a  situation,"  he  con 
descended  to  inform  his  vassal,  and  to  this  look-out, 
wherever  it  was,  he  repaired  each  forenoon,  when 


PHEMIE'S  TEMPTATION.  299 

the  weather  was  moderately  fine.  His  wont  was  to 
lounge  into  the  breakfast-room  two  hours  after  Miss 
Darcy  had  dispatched  hers  and  settled  herself  in  the 
office  ;  eat  the  toast  or  muffins,  and  drink  the  strong 
coffee  his  wife  had  kept  hot  for  him  ;  discuss  the  egg 
she  had  boiled,  the  ham  or  fish  she  had  broiled  to 
tempt  his  slender  appetite — mute  and  surly,  or  crossly 
quarrelsome.  Baby  was  banished  to  the  kitchen,  if 
auntie  were  too  busy  to  have  her  in  the  office,  for 
her  prattle  offended  her  father's  nerves.  It  was 
eleven  o'clock  before  he  was  ready  to  quit  the  house, 
and  until  then,  Phemie  was  kept  in  constant  attend 
ance.  He  was  one  of  the  men  who  act  like  a  small 
whirlwind  upon  whatever  household  they  enter. 
Had  this  boasted  seven  servants  instead  of  half  a 
one,  he  would  have  kept  them  all  on  the  jump  with 
his  demands  for  personal  service.  Ignoring  what 
was  no  secret  to  him,  namely,  that  Sylvia's  labors 
were  confined  to  the  kitchen,  and  that,  even  there, 
she  required  the  assistance  of  one  of  her  mistresses  at 
certain  seasons,  he  expected  to  have  his  meals  at 
whatever  hours  he  designated  ;  coffee  or  chocolate  in 
his  chamber,  when  he  was  not  disposed  to  come  to 
the  dining-room ;  his  boots  polished  and  his  coat 
brushed  with  the  same  degree  of  nicety  he  would 
have  required  from  an  accomplished  valet ;  hot  water 
at  all  times  of  the  day  or  night ;  fires  in  bed-room 
and  parlor,  and  freedom  from  Ruth's  company  ex 
cept  upon  such  rare  occasions  as  he  chose  to  amuse 
himself  with  her  pranks,  as  he  would  have  laughed 
at  the  gambols  of  a  tame  monkey.  Her  name  was  a 


300  PHEMIE'3  TEMPTATION. 

source  of  dire  displeasure  to  him.  It  never  passed 
his  lips,  and  Pheraie  feared,  sometimes,  that  he  dis 
liked  the  child  because  she  bore  it.  Without  ex 
changing  a  syllable  with  Miss  Darcy  on  the  subject, 
she  acknowledged  to  herself  that  his  indifference  and 
often  ill-humor  toward  her  babe  were,  as  in  the  elder 
lady's  case,  the  greatest  trial  she  had  to  endure. 
The  combined  offices  of  shoe-black,  valet,  cook,  and 
waiter  were  a  draught  upon  her  time  she  could  not 
sustain  without  serious  inconvenience.  His  capri 
cious  fondness  for  herself,  with  the  alternation  of 
coldness  and  unkindness,  wearied  Patience  and  wore 
out  Love.  But  these  were  as  nothing  compared  with 
the  disappointment  of  her  cherished  hope  that  their 
infant  was  to  be  the  instrument  of  the  father's  re 
generation.  She  had  looked  forward  to  this  with  a 
secure  faith  that  was  almost  sublime ;  had  lived  upon 
the  anticipation  until,  when  the  hope  was  dashed, 
she  felt,  for  the  first  time  in  her  toilsome,  strangely- 
crossed  existence,  that  there  was  nothing  left  for 
which  to  toil  and  live ;  wished,  in  apathetic  abase 
ment  of  spirit,  that  GOD  would  let  her  die. 

Yet  there  was  stringent  need  for  exertion.  The 
expenses  of  the  family  were  doubled  by  the  late  ad 
dition  to  their  number,  and  she  would  have  worked 
herself  into  her  grave  before  she  would  have  let  Miss 
Darcy  be  the  poorer  for  it.  It  was  sore  labor — this 
call  upon  the  brain  for  matter  fresh,  new,  and  at 
tractive,  when  the  body  was  weary  and  the  heart 
aching.  She  could  not  conceal  from  herself  the  truth 
that  what  was  penned  in  these  circumstances  con- 


PHEMIE'8  TEMPTATION.  301 

tributed  nothing  to,  if  it  did  not  really  detract  from 
her  reputation ;  but  she  must  go  forward  in  the  face 
of  discouragements  from  within  and  from  without. 

CD 

Her  husband  grumbled  incessantly  at  her  absorption 
iu  her  profession ;  was  unsparing  in  his  complaints 
that  she  grudged  him  the  little  time  she  devoted  to 
his  comfort  and  amusement;  drove  him  from  her  and 
home  by  her  neglect  to  provide  for  his  entertainment 
as  did  other  wives  who  cared  more  for  their  husbands 
than  for  literature.  It  was  less  easy  for  her  to  sup 
port  these  imputations  patiently,  as  month  after 
month  passed  and  his  position  upon  the  "  look-out " 
seemed  destined  to  become  the  only  permanent  one 
he  was  to  obtain,  and  the  task  of  maintaining  him  in 
the  expensive  habits  of  gentleman  at  large,  strained 
every  energy  to  the  utmost.  Despite  Miss  Darcy's 
ingenuity  in  relieving  her  of  whatever  burden  she 
could,  by  any  stretch  of  imagination  and  conscience, 
assert  ought  to  devolve  upon  her,  she  was  forced  to 
apply  again  for  book-keeping  and  copying  in  order 
to  eke  out  the  income  derived  from  her  regular  con 
tributions  to  magazines  and  newspapers.  Not  even 
Miss  Darcy  knew  how  often,  that  winter  and  spring, 
she  sat  up  all  night,  writing  until  the  pen  seemed  to 
cleave  to  her  fingers,  and  the  agony  of  the  swollen 
wrist  was  tempered  within  the  bounds  of  endurance 
by  wet  bandages,  often  renewed,  as  they  steamed 
from  the  heat  of  the  red  and  burning  flesh.  If  Rob 
ert  were  aware  of  all  this,  he  never  signified  his  ap 
preciation  of  her  toils  in  his  behalf.  What  more 
reasonable  than  that  she,  who  was  inured  to  labor, 


302  PREMIER  TEMPTATION. 

should  desire  to  work  for  one  whom  he  pitied  so  sin 
cerely,  loved  so  fondly  as  he  did  himself?  Not  that 
he  was  such  a  brute  as  to  allow  her  to  help  him  if  he 
could  help  himself.  While  he  had  means,  he  had 
shared  them  with  her  without  stint,  and  joyed  that 
he  could  do  this ;  had  positively  and  repeatedly  pro 
hibited  her  working.  It  galled  him  to  see  her  obliged 
to  do  it  now — was  one  of  the  chief  elements  in  the 
depression  that  unfitted  him  for  providing  for  his 
own  wants.  He  let  slip  no  opportunity  of  la 
menting  his  evil  case ;  chided  her  that  she  did  not 
testify  a  more  lively  sympathy  with  the  suffer 
ings  induced  by  this  reflection.  What  more  would 
she  have?  Instead  of  reproaches — silent  though  they 
were — compassion  should  be  his  portion — compassion 
and  delicate  consideration,  such  as  the  just  and  ten 
der-hearted  award  to  the  misfortunes  of  him  whose 
merits  should  have  purchased  success. 

Phemie  did  pity  him,  but  it  was  commiseration 
that  flourished  upon  the  decay  of  respect.  She  never 
said  to  him  that,  were  she  in  his  place,  she  would  dig 
in  the  public  culverts ;  sweep  the  streets ;  hold  horses 
at  a  hotel ;  or  black  boots  at  a  crossing,  sooner  than 
be  dependent  for  the  bread  she  ate  upon  the  earnings 
of  an  overtasked  woman.  But  she  felt  it,  and  the 
more  keenly  that  he  received  this  support  as  his  right ; 
recognized  no  obligation  to  her  that  it  was  rendered. 

At  the  end  of  six  months  the  crisis  came.  It  was 
a  hot  July  afternoon,  when  Mr.  Bonney,  now  the 
head  partner  of  the  house  in  which  he  had  received 
his  commercial  training,  and  promoted  to  the  dignity 


PREMIERS  TEMPTATION.  303 

of  a  private  box,  yclept  an  office,  at  the  further  end 
of  the  long  store,  was  interrupted  in  the  middle  of  a 
business  letter  by  the  intelligence — "  A  lady  wants  to 
see  you,  sir  !  " 

It  was  Phemie.  Joe  hastened  to  set  a  chair  for 
her,  and  offered  her  a  glass  of  ice-water  and  a  fan. 
"  You  look  very  tired  ! "  he  said,  kindly.  "  I  am 
afraid  you  are  not  strong." 

"  I  am  neither  strong  nor  well,  this  summer,"  she 
rejoined.  "  And  just  now,  I  am  half  wild  !  I  never 
thought  to  come  to  you  on  such  an  errand,  Joe — 
but  can  you  lend  me  two  hundred  dollars  ?  Stay !  " 
He  had  put  his  hand  upon  his  check-book.  "  I  have 
made  up  my  mind  to  tell  you  why  I  need  it.  I  owe 
a  quarter's  rent  and  two  or  three  small  bills.  I  never 
had  bills  until  lately,  but  I  knew  there  would  be  about 
three  hundred  dollars  coming  to  me,  when  my  half- 
yearly  copyright  account  was  made  up  at  my  pub 
lisher's.  I  went  to  receive  this  to-day,  and  was  in 
formed  that  Mr.  Hart  had  drawn  every  dollar  due  me 
a  week  since — my  publisher  supposed,  by  my  direc 
tions.  I  have  nothing  to  say  against  this.  A  hus 
band  has  unlimited  control  over  his  wife's  wages. 
But  if  I  do  not  pay  the  rent,  Miss  Darcy  must.  We 
do  this  upon  alternate  quarters.  Thus  far,  the  in 
crease  of  my  family  has  not  entailed  heavier  expenses 
upon  her,  and  it  must  not,  if  I  can  help  it.  If  you 
can  lend  me  the  sum  I  have  named,  I  will  work  it 
out  for  you.  I  cannot  promise  to  pay  it  in  any  other 
way.  To-day's  experience  has  taught  me  that  I  must 
not  anticipate  my  earnings." 


304  PHEMIE'8  TEMPTATION. 

Joe  wrote  out  a  check,  signed  "  J.  M.  Bonney,"  in 
his  round,  clerkly  hand,  and  gave  it  to  her.  "  Pay 
me  when  it  is  perfectly  convenient.  Ten  years  hence 
will  suit  me  first-rate.  And,  I  say,  Phemie,  when 
you  would  like  more,  you  can  have  it  on  the  same 
terms.  I  don't  want  a  better  investment." 

The  lower  lip — no  longer  full  and  red — quivered 
so  violently  that  she  could  only  bow  her  head  in 
thanks.  Joe  fidgeted  to  the  window,  then  to  his 
desk ;  blew  his  nose  behind  the  raised  lid,  and 
emerged  from  its  shadow  in  a  profuse  perspiration, 
especially  about  the  eyes.  "  It  is  the  hottest  day  I 
ever  felt !  "  he  said,  so  very  naturally  that  embarrass 
ment  would  have  served  his  turn  better.  "  It's  a 
tender  subject,  I  know,  Phemie,  but  you  must  really 
take  care  of  yourself.  This  sort  of  thing,  now,  isn't 
fair — in  point  of  fact,  it  is  beastly  and  diabolical,  you 
see — and  it  must  not  happen  again.  You  must  leave 
orders  with  people  who  owe  you  money  not  to  pay  it 
except  to  you,  or  your  written  order." 

"  It  would  do  no  good,  Joe."  The  lip  was  still, 
now,  and  the  upper  laid  a  short,  hard  curve  upon  it. 
"  I  am  powerless.  All  women  are,  I  think." 

"  So  much  the  more  reason  why  men  should  be 
honest,  and  give  them  their  rights  !  "  said  illogical 
Joe.  "I  never  could  see  any  reason  why  they 
shouldn't  pull  evenly  together  in  harness,  instead  of 
quarrelling  all  the  time.  But  this  taking  your  hard- 
earned  money,  Phemie,  is  an  ugly  dodge  that  shall 
be  looked  into." 

Phemie  shook  her  head  and  arose  to  go.     "  Better 


PHEMIE'S  TEMPTATION.  305 

let  it  alone !  The  sore  is  too  deep  and  wide  for 
your  powers  of  healing,  and  I  am  but  one  of  many 
sufferers.  I  wish  I  could  thank  you,  brother,  but  I 
cannot." 

As  she  turned  the  corner  of  the  street  on  which 
her  house  stood,  she  heard  a  child's  shrill  shrieks  of 
terror  or  pain,  and  quickening  her  pace,  distinguished, 
as  she  gained  the  front  gate,  her  husband's  voice, 
loud  in  dispute  with  some  one  upon  the  lower  floor. 
Applying  her  pass-key,  she  followed  the  direction  of 
the  tumult,  and  entered  Miss  Darcy's  office.  That 
lady  stood  by  the  desk,  enfolding  in  a  close  embrace 
baby  Ruth,  whose  arms  were  tightened  about  her 
neck  in  a  convulsion  of  alarm.  Robert  was  between 
them  and  the  door.  He  had  a  thin,  flat  ruler  in  his 
hand,  which  he  had  picked  up  from  the  desk,  and 
his  face  was  black  with  rage. 

"  I  have  borne  your  prying  and  interfering  and 
tampering  with  me  and  mine  as  long  as  I  mean  to  1 " 
were  the  first  words  to  which  Phemie  listened.  "  It 
is  not  enough  that  my  wife  is  your  obedient  puppet, 
but  you  would  teach  my  child  to  defy  my  authority. 
I  will  have  no  more  trifling.  I  give  you  two  min 
utes  to  put  her  down  and  leave  her  to  me.  If  it  is 
not  done  in  that  time,  I  shall  take  her.  If  I  tear 
her  limb  from  limb,  the  responsibility  rests  with  you 
— not  me  !  " 

Phemie  went  straight  to  the  child,  took  her  in  her 
arms,  and  bade  her  be  quiet.  The  little  creature 
obeyed  instantly,  hiding  her  eyes  and  smothering  her 
sobs  upon  her  mother's  bosom.  "When  she  was  quite 


306  PHHMIE'8  TEMPTATION. 

composed,  Phemie  carried  her  up-stairs,  and  con 
signed  her  to  Sylvia's  care.  Then  she  returned  to 
the  study,  where  the  late  combatants  awaited  her 
coming  in  ominous  silence. 

"  Now,  I  will  hear  the  explanation  of  this  scene  !  " 
she  said,  in  a  passionless  tone,  one  would  hardly  have 
expected  from  an  affectionate  parent,  after  what  had 
passed. 

It  was  given  at  length,  and  excitedly,  by  Mr.  Hart: 
briefly,  and  with  constrained  moderation,  by  Miss 
Darcy.  Bonnie  Ruthie  had  been  playing  in  the  hall 
when  her  father  opened  the  front  door.  He  had 
called  her  to  come  to  him,  and  she,  in  perversity,  ac 
cording  to  his  account,  in  frolic,  according  to  Miss 
Darcy's,  had  scampered  away  from  him,  and  hidden 
under  the  tall  desk.  He  had  pursued  her,  still  com 
manding  her  to  come  to  him,  and  she  replied  by  a 
saucy  laugh,  peeping  at  him  from  behind  the  leg  of 
the  desk.  When,  however,  he  seized  her  by  the  arm 
and  dragged  her  out,  she  perceived  that  he  was  in 
angry  earnest,  and  tried  to  free  herself,  screaming  to 
"  Auntie "  to  help  her.  Whereupon  he  had  caught 
up  the  ruler  and  commenced  a  chastisement,  which 
Miss  Darcy  had  checked  at  the  third  blow,  by  disen 
gaging  the  child  from  his  grasp  and  sheltering  her, 
as  we  have  seen. 

"  If  she  had  deserved  correction,  and  it  had  been 
administered  in  a  proper  manner,  I  should  have  re 
mained  a  passive  looker-on,"  said  Ruthie's  defender, 
in  conclusion.  ''  But  she  was  in  danger  of  serious 
injury,  and  I  saw  that  Mr.  Hart  had  forgotten  how 


PHEMIE'S  TEMPTATION.  307 

heavy  a  man's  hand  is,  and  how  tender  is  the  flesh, 
how  soft  are  the  bones  of  a  little  child." 

Phemie  paled  at  the  simple  sentence  that  set  forth 
the  peril  her  baby  had  escaped,  and  her  husband,  see 
ing  this,  broke  in  tauntingly : — 

"  Ay !  believe  her,  and  not  me!  Believe  and  trust 
her  who  has  been  the  bane  of  our  peace !  the  false 
friend  who  has  beguiled  you  from  the  path  of  duty 
and  respectability !  The  time  has  come  when  you 
must  make  your  choice  between  us.  Either  she  leaves 
this  house  to-night,  and  forever,  or  I  do  !  You  must 
bid  one  of  us  a  final  farewell,  here  and  now !  " 

"  She  shall  not  decide !  I  will  go,"  exclaimed  Miss 
Darcy,  with  generous  impetuosity.  "  She  can  bear 
me  witness  that  I  have  never  put  forward  any  claim 
to  her  duty,  her  time,  or  her  affection,  that  could  con 
flict  with  yours.  Phemie,  dear !  we  will  get  this 
parting  over  quickly  and  bravely ;  your  first  duty  is 
to  your  husband." 

"  I  deny  it !  "  Phemie  laid  her  hand  upon  her 
friend's  arm.  "  I  promised  to  be  a  wife — not  a  slave. 
I  reject  this  arbitrary  test.  This  is  your  home — not 
mine.  If  you  desert  me,  I  have  no  home  but  the 
street.  My  husband  has  not  left  me  the  means  where 
with  to  pay  for  a  night's  lodgings  for  myself  and  child. 
The  Lord  judge  between  me  and  him.  I  have  made 
my  choice." 

I  am  not  writing  a  story  with  a  moral.  If  I  were, 
I  should  narrate  how  the  wife  elected  to  follow  the 
husband's  wanderings,  and  how  her  death  with  her 
babe,  of  starvation  in  a  garret,  resulted  in  his  refor- 


308  PHEMISTS  TEMPTATION. 

mation  and  conversion  to  decency  and  piety.  I  am  de 
scribing  things  that  have  been,  and  that  are.  I  would 
guard  this  point  carefully.  I  concede,  cheerfully,  the 
fact  that  Phemie  was  neither  a  perfect  woman  nor  a 
model  wife.  I  would  leave  the  judgment  of  my  read 
ers  unbiassed.  If  her  errors  were  great,  her  sufferings 
were  not  light.  If  her  final  decision  was  a  sin  against 
GOD  and  man,  she  did  not  go  unpunished. 

True  to  his  word,  Robert  Hart  shook  off  the  dust 
of  his  feet  upon  the  steps  of  the  corner  cottage  that 
very  night.  It  was  not  until  after  he  had  gone  that 
Phemie  found  a  scrap  of  paper  upon  her  desk,  ad 
dressed  to  her,  and  bearing  these  words — 

"  You  may  not  know  that,  if  you  persist  .in  your 
refusal  to  live  with  me  as  my  wife,  I  can  apply  for 
the  custody  of  my  child,  when  she  shall  reach  the 
age  of  five  or  six  years." 

Under  the  shadow  of  this  threat,  the  mother  lived 
and  labored  for  two  years  longer.  Spurred  by  it,  and 
the  entreaties  of  her  friends,  she,  at  the  end  of  that 
term,  took  the  preliminary  steps  toward  a  divorce 
upon  the  ground  of  desertion  and  failure  to  provide 
for  her  support. 

"  I  cannot  advise  you  to  proceed  in  this  matter  yet 
awhile,  madam,"  was  the  caution  of  the  wary  lawyer 
whom  she  consulted.  "  Should  Mr.  Hart  see  fit  to 
contest  the  suit,  the  fact  that  after  a  two  years'  ab 
sence  you  received  him  gladly  and  lived  under  the 
same  roof  with  him  for  six  months,  would  operate 
seriously  against  your  success.  I  should  recommend 
a  compromise." 


PREMIERS  TEMPTATION.  309 

Phemie  went  back  to  her  child  and  her  work, 
and  abode  in  the  shadow  of  the  menace,  two  years 
longer — years  of  dread  and  darkness  which  had 
their  record  in  the  wild  glance  that,  through  all  her 
after-life,  would  leap  to  her  eyes  at  the  approach 
of  a  stealthy  footstep  ;  at  the  rattling  of  a  casement 
at  midnight ;  at  the  receipt  of  a  letter,  the  superscrip 
tion  of  which  was  lawyerly  and  unfamiliar ;  at  many 
a  simple  incident  that  would  have  passed  unnoticed 
by  the  happy  and  fortunate,  but  which  recalled  for 
her  the  long-drawn  agony  of  that  waiting  for  the  day 
of  her  child's  safety — years  of  doubting  and  fearing, 
which  stole  the  nectarine  flush  from  her  cheeks,  and 
left  white  marks  among  her  brown  hair,  like  the 
streakings  of  phantom  fingers. 

Three  times,  during  this  period,  her  husband  wrote 
to  her  for  money,  which  was  forwarded  to  him  with 
terrified  punctuality  ;  twice  she  was  informed  by  her 
men  of  business  that  they  had  honored  Mr.  Hart's 
drafts  upon  them  to  the  amount  of  several  hundred 
dollars — each  time,  just  after  the  publication  of  a  new 
volume  from  her  pen— a  circumstance  that  showed 
how  vigilant  was  his  watch  upon  her,  and  intensified 
her  apprehension  of  his  sudden  descent  upon  her 
folded  lamb.  The  aforesaid  men  of  business  had 
"not  thought  it  expedient  to  refuse  to  pay  the  money 
to  the  claimant,  lest  they  should  become  involved  in  a 
law-suit,"  in  which  event  they  were  sagacious  enough 
to  understand  that  the  chances  were  as  a  hundred  to 
one  against  the  nominal  owner  of  the  copyright. 

And  then  the  hour  of  deliverance  arrived. 


310  PREMIERS  TEMPTATION. 

"  ButPhemie  was  greatly  mistaken  if.she  imagined 
that  she  would  be  happier  after  she  got  her  divorce," 
said  Olive  to  Emily,  on  the  latter's  return  from  a  sum 
mer  tour.  'k  I  was  saying  to  Joe,  yesterday,  that  she 
was  the  very  picture  of  a  broken-hearted  woman. 
She  seems  to  take  no  interest  in  anything  but  her 
child  and  her  everlasting  writing.  Miss  Darcy  has 
taken  her  off  into  the  country  for  a  month,  and  Al 
bert  is  with  them.  They  mean  to  hire  a  house  near 
the  Institute,  and  all  live  together.  You  know  Albert 
is  a  professor  there,  now.  They  say  he  lectures 
splendidly,  and  he  is  invited  to  deliver  lectures  all 
over  the  country.  I  do  hope  they  will  determine  to 
move  out  of  town,  if  it  is  only  a  little  way.  People 
talk  so  about  Phemie's  domestic  troubles,  and  we  can 
not  deny  that  she  and  her  husband  could  not  live  to 
gether — and  if  she  didn't  drive  him  from  home  twice 
— what  did  ?  I  asked  Joe  that  plain  question  only 
this  morning  at  breakfast.  But  I  have  to  be  careful 
what  I  say  to  him  about  her.  He  really  flew  out  at 
me  when  I  said  that,  and  nearly  swore  at  Mr.  Hart, 
for  a  pompous,  selfish,  thieving  humbug.  That  isn't 
a  beginning  of  what  he  called  him.  He  never  could 
abide  him,  and  he  is  ridiculously  partial  to  Phemie. 
Albert  is  just  as  bad.  He  will  have  it  that  she  is  a 
persecuted  saint.  But  for  all  that,  Em,  you  and  I 
may  thank  our  stars,  as  I  said  to  Jane,  the  other  day, 
when  she  was  repeating  some  of  the  shameful  things 
people  say  of  the  divorce — we  ought  to  return  thanks 
every  day  we  live  that  we  never  had  any  temptation 
to  become  strong-minded  women." 


TEMPTATION.  311 

"  If  I  had,  I  hope  I  should  have  had  grace  given 
me  to  resist  it,"  said  proper  and  pious  Emily.  "This 
disposition  to  abandon  the  walk  of  life  in  which 
Providence  intended  women  to  remain,  is  a  great  and 
growing  evil — a  most  dangerous  snare  to  the  young 
girls  of  the  present  day.  Phemie's  career  and  present 
condition  are  to  me  a  striking  proof  of  the  punish 
ment  that,  even  in  this  world,  waits  upon  such  a 
flagrant  violation  of  natural  laws." 

So,  thanks  to  Seth  and  his  mouth-piece,  my  story 
has  a  moral  after  all. 


THE   END. 


OHARYBDIS 


CHAPTER  I. 

T  is  always  a  thankless  office  to  give  advice  in 
these  matters,"  said  Mrs.  Charles  Romaine, 
discreetly.  "  Your  brother  and  I  have  de 
cided  not  to  attempt  to  influence  you  in  any 
way,  Constance ;  not  to  bias  your  judgment 
in  favor  of,  or  against  Mr.  Withers.  Yon,  as  the 
one  most  nearly  interested  in  the  consequences  of 
your  acceptance  or  refusal  of  his  offer,  should  surely 
be  able  to  make  up  your  mind  how  to  treat  it  and 
him." 

"  I  should  be,  as  you  say,"  responded  the  sister-in- 
law.  "  But  I  cannot." 

She  was  a  handsome  woman,  in  the  prime  of  early 
maturity,  whose  face  seldom  wore,  in  the  sight  of 
others,  the  perturbed  expression  that  now  begloomed 
it. 

14 


314  CI&UIYBDIS. 

"  That  does  not  affect  the  fact  of  your  duty,"  an 
swered  Mrs.  Romaine,  with  considerable  severity. 
"  There  are  times  and  circumstances  in  which  vacilla 
tion  is  folly — criminal  weakness.  You  have  known 
Mr.  Withers  long  enough  to  form  a  correct  estimate 
of  his  character.  In  means  and  in  reputation  he  is 
all  that  could  be  desired,  your  brother  says.  Either 
you  like  him  well  enough  to  marry  him,  or  you  do 
not.  Your  situation  in  life  will  be  bettered  by  an 
alliance  with  him,  or  it  will  not.  These  are  the 
questions  for  your  consideration.  And,  excuse  me 
for  saying,  that  a  woman  of  your  age  should  not  be 
at  a  loss  in  weighing  these." 

Again,  Constance  had  nothing  ready  except  a  weak 
phrase  of  reluctant  acquiescence.  "  I  feel  the  weight 
of  your  reasoning,  Margaret.  You  cannot  despise  me 
more  than  I  do  myself  for  my  childish  hesitancy.  Mr. 
Withers — any  sensible  and  honorable  man  deserves 
different  treatment.  If  I  could  see  the  way  clear 
before  me,  I  would  walk  in  it.  But,  indeed,  I  am  in 
a  sore  dilemma." 

She  turned  away,  as  her  voice  shook  on  'the  last 
sentence,  and  affected  to  be  busy  with  some  papers 
upon  a  stand. 

Mrs.  Rornaine  was  just  in  all  her  dealings  with  her 
husband's  sister,  and  meant,  in  her  way,  to  be  kind. 
Constance  respected  her  for  her  excellent  sense,  her 
honesty  of  purpose  and  action — but  she  was  the  last 
of  her  friends  wrhom  she  would  have  selected,  of  her 
free  will,  as  the  confidante  of  such  joys  and  sorrows 
as  shrink  from  the  touch  of  hard  natures ;  refuse  to  be 


VHARYBDIS.         %  315 

confessed  to  unsympathizing  ears.  Her  heart  and  eyes 
were  very  full  now,  but  she  would  strangle  sooner 
than  drop  a  tear  while  those  cold,  light  orbs  were 
upon  her. 

In  consideration  of  the  weakness  and  ridiculous 
sensitiveness  of  her  companion,  Mrs.  Romaine  forbore 
to  speak  the  disdain  she  felt  at  the  irresolution  and 
distress  she  could  not  comprehend.  "  Is  Mr.  Withers 
personally  disagreeable  to  you  ?  "  she  demanded,  in 
her  strong  contralto  voice. 

"I  liked  him  tolerably  well — very  well,  in  fact, 
until  he  told  me  what  brought  him  here  so  regularly," 
Constance  stammered.  "  Now,  I  am  embarrassed  in 
his  presence — so  uneasy  that  I  wish,  sometimes,  I 
could  never  see  or  hear  of  him  again." 

"  Mere  shyness  ! "  said  Mrs.  Romaine.  "  Such  as 
would  be  pardonable  in  a  girl  of  seventeen.  In  a 
woman  of  seven-and-twenty,  it  is  absurd.  Mr.  With 
ers  is  highly  esteemed  by  all  who  know  him.  Your 
disrelish  of  his  society  is  caprice,  unless  " — the  mar 
ble-gray  eyes  more  searching — "  unless  you  have  a 
prior  attachment  ? " 

Constance  smiled  drearily.  "  I  have  never  been 
in  love  in  my  life,  that  I  know  of." 

"  You  are  none  the  worse  for  having  escaped  an 
infatuation  that  has  wrecked  more  women  for  time 
and  for  eternity  than  all  other  delusions  combined.  A 
rational  marriage — founded  upon  mutual  esteem  and 
the  belief  that  the  social  and  moral  condition  of  the 
parties  to  the  contract  would  be  promoted  thereby,  is 
the  only  safe  union.  The  young — inexperience^  and 


316  CHARYBDIS. 

headstrong  —  repudiate  this  principle.  The  mature 
in  age  know  it  to  be  true.  But,  as  I  have  said,  it  is 
not  my  intention  to  direct  your  judgment.  This  is  a 
momentous  era  in  your  life.  I  can  only  hope  and 
pray  that  you  may  be  guided  aright  in  your  decision." 

Left  to  herself  to  digest  this  morsel  of  pious  en 
couragement,  Constance  drew  a  low  seat  to  the  hearth- 
register  ;  clasped  her  hands  upon  her  knees,  and  tried, 
for  the  hundredth  time  that  day,  to  weigh  the  facts 
of  her  position,  fairly  and  impartially. 

She  had  been  an  orphan  for  eight  years,  and  a 
resident  in  the  house  of  her  eldest  brother.  Her 
senior  by  more  than  a  dozen  years,  and  in  the  excit 
ing  swing  of  successful  mercantile  life,  he  had  little 
leisure  for  the  study  of  his  sister's  tastes  and  traits, 
when  she  first  became  his  ward,  and  conceived  the 
task  to  be  an  unnecessary  one,  now  that  she  was  a 
fixture  in  his  family,  and  appeared  to  get  on  smoothly 
with  his  wife.  In  truth,  it  never  occurred  to  him  to 
lay  a  disturbing  finger  upon  the  tiniest  wheel  of  the 
domestic  machinery.  His  respect  for  his  spouse's  ex 
ecutive  and  administrative  abilities  was  exceeded  only 
by  her  confidence  in  her  own  powers.  She  was  never 
irascible,  but  he  knew  that  she  would  have  borne 
down  calmly  and  energetically  any  attempt  at  inter 
ference  in  her  operations  as  minister  of  the  interior — 
the  ruler  of  the  establishment  he,  by  a  much-abused 
figure  of  speech,  called  his  home.  A  snug  and  ele 
gant  abode  she  made  of  it;  and  beholding  Constance 
well-dressed  and  well-fed,  habitually  cheerful,  and 
ne^er  rebellious,  he  may  be  forgiven  for  not  spending 


CHARYBDIS.  317 

a  thought  upon  her  for  hours  together,  and  when  he 
did  remember  her,  for  dwelling  the  rather  upon  his 
disinterested  kindness  to  a  helpless  dependent  than 
speculating  upon  her  possible  and  unappeased  spirit 
ual  appetites. 

For  these,  and  for  other  whimsies,  Mrs.  Romaine 
had  little  thought  and  no  charity.  Life,  with  her, 
was  a  fabric  made  up  of  duties,  various  and  many, 
but  all  double-twisted  into  hempen  strength,  and 
woven  too  closely  for  a  shine  of  fancy  or  romance  to 
strike  through.  She  had  coincided  readily  in  her 
husband's  plan  to  take  charge  of  his  young  sister 
when  her  parents  died.  "  Her  brother's  house  is  the 
fittest  asylum  for  her,"  she  had  said.  "  I  shall  do  my 
best  to  render  her  comfortable  and  contented." 

She  kept  her  word.  Constance's  wardrobe  was 
•  ample  and  handsome  ;  her  room  elegantly  furnished, 
and  she  entered  society  under  the  chaperonage  of  her 
sister-in-law.  The  servants  were  trained  to  respect 
her ;  the  children  to  regard  her  as  their  elder  sister. 
What  more  could  a  penniless  orphan  require  ?  Mrs. 
Romaine  was  not  afraid  to  ask  the  question  of  her 
conscience  and  of  Heaven.  Her  "  best "  was  no 
empty  profession.  It  was  lucky  for  her  self-compla 
cency  that  she  never  suspected  what  years  of  barren 
ness  and  longing  these  eight  were  to  her  protegee. 

Constance  was  not  a  genius — therefore  she  never 
breathed  even  to  herself — "I  feel  like. a  seed  in  the 
cold  earth,  quickening  at  heart,  and  longing  for  the 
air."  Her  temperament  was  not  melancholic,  nor 
did  her  taste  run  after  poetry  and  martyrdom.  She 


318  CHARTBD18. 

was  simply  a  young,  pretty,  and  moderately  well- 
educated  woman,  too  sensible  not  to  perceive  that 
her  temporal  needs  were  conscientiously  supplied,  and 
too  affectionate  to  be  satisfied  with  the  meagre  allow 
ance  of  nourishment  dealt  out  for  her  heart  and  sym 
pathies.  While  the  memory  of  her  father's  proud 
affection  and  her  mother's  caresses  were  fresh  upon 
her,  she  had  long  and  frequent  spells  of  lonely  weep 
ing  ;  was  wont  to  resign  herself  in  the  seclusion  of 
her  chamber  to  passionate  lamentations  over  her  or 
phanage  and  isolation  of  spirit.  Routine  was  Mrs. 
Romanic's  watchword,  and  in  bodily  exercise  Con 
stance  conformed  to  her  quiet  despotism ;  visited, 
studied,  worked  and  took  recreation  by  rule.  The 
system  wrought  upon  her  beneficially  so  far  as  her 
physique  was  concerned.  She  grew,  from  a  slender, 
pale  girl,  into  ripe  and  healthy  womanhood ;  was. 
more  comely  at  twenty-seven  than  at  twenty-one. 

But  all  this  time  she  was  an  hungered.  She  would 
cheerfully  have  refunded  to  her  brother  two-thirds  of 
her  liberal  allowance  of  pocket-money,  if  he  had 
granted  to  her  with  its  quarterly  payment,  a  sentence 
of  fraternal  fondness,  a  token,  verbal  or  looked,  that 
he  remembered  whose  child  she  was,  and  that  the 
same  mother-love  had  guarded  their  infancy.  Her 
sister-in-law  would  have  been  welcome  to  withhold 
many  of  her  gifts  of  wearing-apparel  and  jewelry, 
had  she  bethought  herself,  now  and  then,  how  grate 
fully  kisses  fall  upon  young  lips,  and  that  youthful 
heads  are  often  sadly  weary  for  the  lack  of  a  friendly 
shoulder,  or  a  loving  bosom  on  which  to  rest.  She 


CHAETBDIS.  319 

did  not  accuse  her  relatives  of  wilful  unkindness  be 
cause  these  were  withheld.  They  interchanged  no 
such  unremunerative  demonstrations  among  them 
selves.  Husband  and  wife  were  courteous  in  their 
demeanor,  the  One  to  the  other ;  their  children  were 
demure  models  of  filial  duty  at  home  and  industry  at 
school ;  the  training  in  both  places  being  severe 
enough  to  quench  what  feeble  glimmer  of  individual 
ity  may  have  been  born  with  the  offspring  of  the 
methodical  and  practical  parents.  Constance  found 
them  extremely  uninteresting,  notwithstanding  the 
natural  love  for  children  which  led  her  to  court  their 
companionship  during  the  earlier  weeks  of  her  do 
mestication  in  their  house.  It  was  next  to  a  miracle 
that  she  did  not  stiffen  in  this  atmosphere  into  a 
buckram  image  of  feminine  propriety — a  prodigy  of 
starch  and  virtue,  such  as  would  have  brought  calm 
delight  to  the  well-regulated  mind  of  her  exemplar, 
and  effectually  chased  all  thoughts  of  matrimony  from 
those  of  masculine  beholders.  Had  her  discontent 
with  her  allotted  sphere  been  less  active,  the  result 
would  have  been  certain  and  deplorable.  She  was, 
instead,  popular  among  her  acquaintances  of  both 
sexes,  and  had  many  friends,  if  few  lovers.  This 
latter  deficiency  had  given  her  no  concern  until  with 
in  two  years.  At  twenty-five,  she  opened  her  eyes  in 
wide  amaze  upon  the  thinning  ranks  of  her  virgin 
associates,  and  began  seriously  to  ponder  the  causes 
that  had  left  her  unsought,  save  by  two  very  silly  and 
utterly  ineligible  swains,  whose  overtures  were,  in 
her  esteem,  presumption  that  was  only  too  ridiculous 


320  CHARYBDIS. 

to  be  insulting.  Her  quick  wit  and  knowledge  of 
the  world  helped  her  to  a  solution  of  the  problem. 
"I  am  poor  and  dependent  upon  my  brother's  chari 
ty,"  she  concluded,  with  a  new  and  stifling  uprising 
of  dissatisfaction  with  her  condition.  "  Men  rarely 
fall  in  love  with  such — more  rarely  woo  them."  She 
never  spoke  the  thought  aloud,  but  it  grew  and 
strengthened  until  it  received  a  startling  blow  from 
Mr.  Withers'  proposal  of  marriage. 

He  was  a  wealthy  banker  from  a  neighboring  city, 
whom  business  relations  with  Mr.  Romaine  drew  to 
his  house  and  into  his  sister's  company.  His  court 
ship  was  all  Mrs.  Romaine  could  desire.  His  visits 
were  not  too  frequent,  and  were  paid  at  stated  inter 
vals,  as  befitted  his  habits  of  order  and  punctuality. 
His  manner  to  the  lady  honored  by  his  preference 
was  replete  with  stately  respect,  that  was  the  anti 
podes  of  servile  devotion,  while  his  partiality  for  her 
society  and  admiration  for  her  person  were  unmis 
takable.  He  paid  his  addresses  through  Mr.  Romaine 
as  his  fair  one's  guardian,  offering  voluntarily  to  give 
her  whatever  time  for  deliberation  upon  the  proposal 
she  might  desire. 

"  You  had  better  think  it  over  for  a  week,"  ad 
vised  her  brother,  when  he  had  laid  the  case  duly 
before  Constance.  "  It  is  too  serious  a  matter  to  be 
settled  out  of  hand." 

After  that,  neither  he  nor  his  wife  obtruded  their 
counsel  upon  her  until  the  afternoon  of  the  seventh 
day.  Then  Mrs.  Romaine,  going  to  her  sister's  cham 
ber  to  communicate  the  substance  of  a  telegram  just 


CHAMTBDIS.  321 

received  by  her  husband,  to  the  effect  that  Mr. 
"Withers  would  call  that  evening  at  eight  o'clock,  was 
moved  to  grave  remonstrance  by  the  discovery  that 
she  whom  he  came  to  woo  had  no  answer  prepared 
for  him.  Constance  was  no  nearer  ready  after  the 
conversation  recorded  some  pages  back. 

"  I  cannot  afford  to  be  romantic,"  she  had  reminded 
herself  several  times.  "  And  who  knows  but  this  ir 
rational  repugnance  may  pass  away  when  I  have 
once  made  up  my  mind  to  accept  him?  This  may 
be — in  all  likelihood  it  is  my  last  chance  of  achieving 
an  independent  position.  It  has  been  a  long  time 
coming,  and  my  charms  will  be  on  the  wane  soon. 
True,  a  marriage  with  Elnathan  Withers  is  not  the 
destiny  of  which  I  have  dreamed,  but  then  dreams 
are  but  foolish  vagaries  after  all.  Life  is  real  and 
earnest." 

She  had  kept  her  heart  alive  upon  nothing  else  for 
eight  years — dreams  of  home,  and  love,  and  apprecia 
tion  ;  of  liberty  to  speak  out  what  she  had  never 
lisped  since  her  mother  died,  and  of  being  once  again, 
joyously  and  without  reserve,  herself.  There  are  no 
harder  spectres  to  lay  than  these  same  dreams.  Me 
mories,  however  dear  and  sacred,  are  more  easily  for 
gotten  or  dismissed,  or  smothered  by  the  growth  of 
later  ones.  If  she  bade  them  farewell  now,  it  was 
for  a  lifetime. 

"  A  lifetime ! "  she  repeated,  shivering  with  a  sick 
chill,  and  crouching  lower  over  the  register.     "  May 
be  ten,  maybe  twenty,  who  knows  but  forty  years ! 
It  is  a  tedious  slumber  of  one's  heart,  and  a  loveless 
14* 


322  CHARTBDIS. 

marriage  is  a  loathsome  sepulchre  for  one's  better  and 
real  self.  A  lifetime !  and  I  can  have  but  one !  But 
one!  If  this  step  should  be  ruin  and  misery,  there 
can  be  no  redemption  this  side  of  the  grave.  His 
grave,  perhaps — just  as  probably  mine  !  " 

To-night,  this  very  hour,  she  must  resist  the  glit 
tering  temptation  to  forswear -her  womanhood,  or 
murder,  with  her  own  hand,  the  dear  visions  that 
had  come  to  be  more  to  her  than  reality.  The  win 
ter  twilight  had  fallen  early.  It  was  the  season  best 
loved  by  her  dream  visitors.  She  had  not  lied  in 
declaring  to  her  inquisitor  that  she  had  never  been  in 
love,  but  she  confessed  that  she  had  equivocated  as 
the  shadowy  figure  of  her  ideal  lover  stood  beside 
her  in  the  friendly  gloom.  Mrs.  Romaine  would 
have  questioned  her  sanity  had  she  guessed  how  the 
girl  had  sobbed  her  griefs  into  quiet  upon  his  bosom, 
how  talked  lowly  but  audibly  to  him  of  her  love  and 
the  comfort  his  presence  brought.  She  had  never 
looked  into  his  face,  but  she  should  know  him  in  an 
instant  should  they  two  ever  meet  in  the  flesh,  as 
they  did  now  daily  in  spirit.  Somewhere  in  the  dim 
and  blessed  future  he  was  waiting  for  her,  and  she 
had  borrowed  patience  from  the  hope.  She  was  to 
be  his  wife — the  mother  of  children  as  unlike  the 
prodigies  of  repression  that  lined  two  sides  of  her 
brother's  table  as  cherubs  to  puppets.  She  welcomed 
them  to  her  arms  in  these  twilight  trances.  They 
lolled  upon  her  knees,  slept  in  her  embrace,  strained 
eager  arms  about  her  neck,  dappled  her  cheek  with 
their  kisses.  Unsubstantial  possessions  these,  but 


CHARTBDIS.  323 

cherished  as  types  of  good  things  to  come.  Other 
women  had  such  riches — women  with  faces  less  fair, 
and  affections  less  ardent  than  hers.  If  the  Great 
Father  was  good  and  merciful,  and  the  Rewarder  of 
them  who  put  their  trust  in  Him,  a  true  and  loving 
parent,  who  rejoiced  in  the  happiness  of  His  crea 
tures — all  these  must  be  hers  at  last.  If  she  resigned 
them  now,  it  was  a  final  separation. 

"  And  I  can  have  but  one  lifetime,"  she  moaned 
again.  Thwarted  and  fruitless  thus  far,  but  still  all 
she  had. 

The  one  idea  recurred  to  her  with  the  persistency 
of  a  presentiment.  The  life  which  GOD  had  given, 
the  heart  He  had  endowed ! 

"  If  some  one,  stronger  and  wiser  than  I,  would  only 
take  the  responsibility  of  decision  from  my  soul,  would 
hedge  me  in  on  the  right  and  left,  I  would  go  forward. 
As  it  is,  I  dare  not !  I  dare  not ! "  She  sobbed  and 
wrung  her  hands  in  the  agonies  of  irresolution. 

"You  told  Constance  about  the  telegram?"  It 
was  her  brother  speaking  in  the  library  below.  The 
sound  arose  plainly  through  the  open  register. 

"  I  did.  But  I  regret  to  say  that  she  is  not  yet  in 
the  frame  of  mind  we  could  wish  her  to  carry  to  the 
interview  with  Mr.  Withers,"  said  Mrs.  Rornairie. 
She  always  expressed  herself  with  deliberate  pre 
cision  even  in  conjugal  teies-d-tete. 

"No?"  Constance  heard  the  rustle  of  the  evening 
paper  as  Charles  laid  it  down,  and  the  creak  of  his 
chair  as  he  confronted  his  wife.  "  What  is  the 
matter?" 


324:  CHAMTBDIS. 

"  Some  overstrained  ideas  of  the  beauty  and  pro 
priety  of  reciprocal  devotion,  I  believe.  She  looks 
for  a  hero  in  a  husband,  and  Mr.  Withers  has  nothing 
heroic  in  his  appearance  or  composition." 

"He  is  worth  more  than  half  a  million,  all  accu 
mulated  by  his  own  talents  and  industry,"  returned 
Mr.  Romaine.  "  Constance  cannot  be  such  an  egre 
gious  simpleton  as  not  to  perceive  the  manifest  ad 
vantages  of  this  connection  to  her.  I  have  never 
complained  of  the  burden  of  her  maintenance,  but  I 
have  often  wondered  her  own  sense  of  justice  and 
expediency  did  not  urge  her  to  put  forth  some  effort 
at  self-support.  There  is  but  one  way  in  which  she 
can  do  this.  She  is  not  sufficiently  thorough  in  any 
branch  of  literature  or  any  accomplishment  to  become 
a  successful  teacher.  In  the  event  of  my  death  or 
failure  in  business  she  would  be  driven  to  the  humi 
liating  resource  of  taking  in  sewing  for  a  livelihood, 
or  to  seek  the  more  degrading  position  of  a  sales 
woman  in  a  store.  Her  future  has  been  a  source  of 
much  and  anxious  thought  with  me.  This  marriage 
would,  I  hoped,  quiet  my  apprehensions  by  settling 
her  handsomely  in  life.  If  she  refuse  Withers,  I  shall 
be  both  angry  and  disappointed.  She  is  old  enough 
to  leave  off  school-girl  sentimentality." 

The  listener  put  out  her  foot  and  shut  the  register 
noiselessly.  She  had  had  a  surfeit  of  disagreeable 
truth  for  that  time. 

Yet  it  was  truth,  every  word  of  it.  She  was  a 
mean-spirited  hanger-on  to  her  broth§r.  She  was  in 
capable  of  earning  a  livelihood  by  other  means  than 


CHARYBDIS.  325 

those  he  had  named.  Her  mode  of  life  from  her 
infancy  had  unfitted  her  for  toil  and  privation,  such 
as  must  be  hers  were  her  plain-spoken  benefactor  to 
die  to-morrow.  Nor  had  she  the  moral  nerve  to  defy 
public  opinion,  to  debar  herself  from  accustomed  as 
sociations  'and  pleasures  by  entering  the  ranks  of 
paid  laborers.  Hesitation  was  at  an  end.  The  wish 
that  had  been  almost  a  prayer  in  solemn  sincerity 
was  answered  fearfully  soon,  and  she  would  offer  no 
appeal.  Her  destiny  was  taken  out  of  her  hands. 
There  was  no  more  responsibility,  no  more  struggling. 
Hedges  to  the  right  and  to  the  left  bristled  with  thorns, 
sharp  and  thick  as  porcupine  quills.  But  one  path  lay 
open  to  her  feet — a  short  and  straight  course  that 
conducted  her  to  Elnathan  Withers'  arms. 


CHAPTER  II. 

ALF-PAST  five  !    I  wrote  to  Harriet  to  have 
dinner  ready  at  six.     We  shall  be  just  in 
time,"  said  Mr.  Withers,  as  he  took  his  seat 
in  the  carriage  that  was  to  convey  him  with 
his  bride  from  the  depot  to  their  home. 
Constance  was  jaded  by  her  fortnight's  travel,  and 
dispirited,  almost  beyond  her  power  of  concealment, 
but  she  had  learned  already  that  her  lord  disliked  to 
have  whatever  observation  he  was  pleased  to  make 
go  unanswered.     "  She  is  your  housekeeper,  I  sup 
pose  \  "  she  replied,  languidly. 

"  No — that  is — she  does  not  occupy  the  position  of 
a  salaried  inferior  in  my  establishment.     I  must  sure 
ly  have  spoken  to  you  of  my  cousin,  Harriet  Field  \  " 
"  Not  that  I  recollect.     I  am  very  sure  that  I  never 
heard  the  name  until  now." 

"  Her  mother,"  continued  Mr.  Withers,  in  a  pom 
pous  narrative- tone,  "  was  my  father's  sister.  Left  a 
widow,  ten  years  prior  to  her  decease,  she  accepted 
my  invitation  to  take  charge  of  my  house.  She 


CRARYBDI8.  .  327 

brought  with  her  her  only  child,  the  Harriet  of  whom 
I  speak,  and  the  two  remained  with  me  until  our 
family  group  was  broken  in  upon  by  death.  Harriet 
would  then  have  sought  a  situation  as  governess,  but 
for  my  objections.  She  is  a  woman,  of  thirty-five,  or 
thereabouts,  and  I  prevailed  over  her  scruples  touch 
ing  the  propriety  of  her  continued  residence  under 
my  roof,  by  representing  that  her  mature  age,  even 
more  than  our  relationship,  placed  her  beyond  the 
reach  of  scandal.  For  eighteen  months  she  has 
superintended  my  domestic  affairs  to  my  entire  satis 
faction.  That  I  have  not  alluded  directly  to  her  be 
fore  during  our  acquaintanceship,  is  only  to  be  ac 
counted  for  by  the  circumstance  that  we  have  had  so 
many  other  and  more  engrossing  topics  of  conversa 
tion." 

He  raised  her  gloved  hand  to  his  lips  in  stiff  gal 
lantry,  and  Constance  smiled,  constrainedly,  in  reply. 

His  endearments,  albeit  he  was  less  profuse  of 
them  than  a  younger  and  more  ardent  bridegroom 
would  have  been,  were  yet  frequent  enough  to  keep 
his  wife  in  unfailing  remembrance  of  his  claims  and 
her  duties.  He  was,  apparently,  content  with  her 
passive  submission  to  these,  seemed  to  see  in  her  forced 
complaisance  evidence  of  her  pleasure  in  their  recep 
tion.  He  was  too  sedate,  as  well  as  too  gentlemanly  to 
be  openly  conceited,  but  his  appreciation  of  his  own 
importance  in  society  and  in  business  circles  was  too 
profound  to  admit  a  doubt  of  the  supreme  bliss  of  the 
woman  he  had  selected  to  share  his  elevated  position. 
Without  being  puppyish,  he  was  pragmatical  ;  with- 


328  CHAIIYBDIS. 

out  being  ill-tempered,  he  was  tenacious,  in  the  ex 
treme,  of  his  dignity  and  the  respect  he  considered  due 
to  this.  Had  her  mood  been  lighter,  Constance  would 
have  been  tempted  to  smile  at  the  allusion  to  his 
cousin's  age,  his  own  exceeding  it  by  three  years,  as 
she  had  accidentally  learned  through  the  indiscretion 
of  a  common  acquaintance.  He  was  sensitive  upon 
this  point,  she  had  likewise  been  informed.  She  had 
yet  to  discover  upon  how  many  others. 

Most  young  wives  would  not  have  relished  the 
idea  of  finding  this  invaluable  relative  installed  as 
prime  manager  in  her  new  abode.  It  mattered  little 
to  her,  Constance  said,  still  languidly,  who  ruled  and 
who  obeyed.  She  had  given  up  so  much  within 
three  months  past,  that  resignation  had  become  a 
habit ;  sacrifice  was  no  longer  an  effort.  Having 
nothing  to  hope  for,  she  could  sustain  no  further  loss. 
How  long  this  nightmare  of  apathy  would  continue 
was  a  question  that  did  not  present  itself  in  her  gray 
musings.  Having  once  conquered  Nature,  and  held 
Inclination  under  the  heel  of  Resolve,  until  life 
seemed  extinct,  she  anticipated  no  resurrection.  She 
did  not  know  that  no  single  battle,  however  long 
and  bloody,  constitutes  a  campaign ;  that  length  of 
days  and  many  sorrows  are  needed  to  rob  youth  of 
elasticity  ;  that  the  guest  who  lingers  longest  in  the 
human  heart,  clinging  to  the  shattered  shelter  from 
which  all  other  joys  have  flown,  is  Hope.  It  is 
doubtful  if  she  thought  with  any  distinctness  at  this 
period.  She  was  certainly  less  actively  miserable 
than  in  that  which  immediately  preceded  her  en- 


CHARYBDIS.  329 

gagement.  That  was  amputation,  this  reactionary 
weariness.  How  she  would  fare,  by  and  by,  when 
the  wound  had  become  a  scar,  she  thought  of  least 
of  all. 

It  was  a  handsome  carriage  in  which  she  rode  at  the 
master's  right-  hand.  A  pair  of  fine  horses  pranced 
before  it,  and  a  liveried  coachman  sat  on  the  box. 
She  had,  sometimes,  envied  other  women  the  posses 
sion  of  like  state.  She  ought  to  derive  delight  from 
these  outward  symbols  of  her  elevation  in  the  world. 
It  was  an  imposing  mansion,  too,  before  which  the 
equipage  presently  paused,  and  a  tall  footman  open 
ed  the  front  door,  and  ran  briskly  down  to  the  side 
walk  to  assist  the  travellers  in  alighting.  None  of 
her  associates,  married  or  single,  lived  in  equal  style, 
she  reflected  with  a  stir  of  exultation,  as  she  stepped 
out,  between  her  husband  and  his  lackey. 
'  Mr.  Withers'  address  dampened  the  rising  glow. 

"  This  is  our  home,  my  dear.  You  will  find  no 
cause  of  discontent  with  it,  I  hope,"  he  said,  in  be 
nign  patronage,  handing  her  up  the  noble  flight  of 
stone  steps. 

"  Thank  you,"  she  replied  coldly.  "  It  is  a  part 
of  the  price  for  which  I  sold  myself,"  she  was  med 
itating.  "  I  must  not  quarrel  with  my  bargain." 

Miss  Field  met  them  in  the  hall — a  wasp-like  fig 
ure,  surmounted  by  a  small  head.  Her  neck  was 
bare  and  crane-like ;  her  face  very  oval,  her  skin 
opaque  and  chalky ;  her  hair  black  and  shining ;  the 
forelock  in  long  ringlets,  her  eyes  jet  beads,  that 
rolled  and  twinkled  incessantly. 


330  CHARTBDIS. 

"  My  dear  cousin  ! "  she  cried,  effusively,  embrac 
ing  her  patron's  hand,  and  winking  back  an  officious 
tear.  "  It  is  like  sunshine  to  have  you  home  again. 
How  are  you  ? " 

"Well — thank  you,  Harriet!  or,  I  should  say, 
in  tolerable  health,"  returned  Mr.  Withers,  magnifi 
cently  condescending.  "  Allow  me  to  introduce  my 
wife,  Mrs.  Withers  1 " 

Miss  Field  swept  a  flourishing  courtesy.  Con 
stance,  as  the  truer  lady  of  the  two,  offered  her  hand. 
It  was  grasped  very  slightly,  and  instantly  relin 
quished. 

"  Charmed  to  have  the  honor — I  am  sure ! "  mur 
mured  Miss  Field.  "  I  trust  I  see  Mrs.  Withers 
quite  well?  But  you,  cousin — did  I  understand  you 
to  intimate  that  you  were  indisposed,"  with  strained 
solicitude. 

"A  trifling  attack  of  indigestion,  not  worth  men 
tioning  to  any  ears  excepting  yours,  my  good  nurse." 

Miss  Field  smiled  sweetly  at  this  concession  to 
her  anxiety,  and  Constance,  who  now  heard  of  the 
"  indisposition  "  for  the  flrst  time,  looked  from  one 
to  the  other  in  surprised  silence. 

"  Perhaps  Mrs.  Withers  would  like  to  go  directly 
to  her  apartments?"  pursued  Harriet,  primly,  with 
another  courtesy. 

"By  all  means,"  Mr.  Withers  replied  for  her. 
"As  it  is.  I  fear  your  dinner  will  have  to  wait  for 
her,  if,  as  I  presume  is  the  case,  you  are  punctual  as 
is  your  custom." 

"  Could  I  fail  in  promptitude  upon  this  day  of  all 


CHARTBDIS.  331 

others?"  queried  Harriet,  sentimentally  arch,  and 
preceded  the  bride  upstairs. 

"  Perhaps  it  would  be  better  for  me  not  to  change 
my  dress,  if  I  am  likely  to  infringe  upon  the  dinner 
hour,"  said  Constance,  at  her  chamber  door. 

"  Oh,  I  do  not  think  my  cousin  would  approve  of 
that!"  exclaimed  her  emphatic  conductress.  Then 
she  amended  her  inadvertence.  "  Of  course,  Mrs. 
Withers  is  the  proper  judge  of  her  own  actions,  and 
I  would  not  appear  to  dictate,  but  my  cousin  is 
punctilious  on  some  points,  and  the  matter  of  ladies' 
attire  is  one  of  these.  I  have  known  him  so  long 
that  I  am  conversant  with  all  his  amiajjle  peculiari 
ties.  I  am  confident  he  would  be  pleased  to  see 
Mrs.  Withers  assume  the  head  of  her  table  in  full 
dinner  toilet.  But,  as  I  remarked,  I  do  not  presume 
to  dictate,  to  advise,  or  even  suggest.  Mrs.  Withers 
is  undisputed  empress  here." 

Having  run  trippingly  through  this  speech,  she  in 
flicted  a  third  remarkable  courtesy  upon  the  novice, 
and  vanished. 

"  She  is  underbred,  and  a  meddler,"  decided  Con 
stance,  while  she  made  a  rapid  toilet.  "  I  hate  to  be 
addressed  in  the  third  person.  I  thought  it  a  form 
of  speech  confined,  in  this  country,  to  kitchen-maids 
and  haberdasher's  clerks." 

Before  she  could  invest  herself  in  the  dinner-dress 
that  lay  uppermost  in  her  trunk,  the  bell  rang  to 
summon  her  to  the  evening  meal,  and  three  minutes 
thereafter,  the  footman  knocked  at  her  door  with  the 
message  that  Mr.  Withers  had  sent  for  her. 


332  CHARTBDI8. 

"  I  shall  be  down  directly.  Tell  him  not  to  wait 
for  me,"  she  said,  hurriedly. 

She  did  not  expect  to  be  taken  at  her  word,  but 
upon  her  descent  to  the  dining-room,  she  beheld 
her  husband  seated  at  the  foot  of  the  board,  and 
Miss  Field  at  the  head.  The  latter  laid  down  the 
soup-ladle,  and  jumped  up,  fussily. 

"  Here  she  is,  now !  I  resign  my  chair  to  one  who 
will  fill  it  more  worthily  than  I  have  ever  done." 

"Keep  your  place,  Harriet!"  ordered  her  kins 
man.  "Mrs.  "Withers  will  waive  her  claims  on  this 
occasion,  since  she  is  late,"  designating  a  chair  at 
his  left  as  that  intended  for  Constance's  occupancy. 
"  We  would  have  waite'd  for  you,  Constance,  had  I 
been  less  faint  and  weary.  My  physician  has  repeat 
edly  warned  me  that  protracted  abstinence  is  detri 
mental  to  my  digestion.  Harriet,  here,  understands 
my  constitution  so  well  that  I  am  seldom,  when  at 
home,  a  sufferer  from  the  twinges  of  dyspepsia,  that 
have  afflicted  me  in  my  absence." 

"  Those  horrible  public  tables,"  cried  Harriet. 
"  I  assure  you,  I  never  sat  down  to  a  meal  when  you 
were  away  without  sighing  over  your  evil  plight  in 
being  subjected  to  the  abominable  cookery  and  in 
tolerable  hours  of  hotels." 

"  I  did  not  knowt  you  were  a  dyspeptic,"  observed 
Constance.  "  You  seemed  to  enjoy  good  health  dur 
ing  our  tour." 

"  That  was  because  Mrs.  "Withers  does  not  yet 
comprehend  your  marvellous  patience — the  courage 
with  which  you  bear  pain,  and  the  unselfishness  that 


CHARYBDIS.  333 

leads  you  to  conceal  its  ravages  from  the  eyes  of 
others,"  explained  Miss  Field,  ogling  the  interesting 
sufferer,  who  was  discussing  a  plate  of  excellent 
white  soup  with  a  solemnly  conscious  air.  "  Now, 
that  you  are  safe  under  your  own  roof,  we  will 
soon  undo  the  mischief  that  has  been  done.  You 
do  not  know  what  a  prize  you  have  won,  Mrs. 
"Withers,  until  you  have  seen  him  in  the  retiracy  of 
•home.  His  virtues  are  such  as  flourish  in  per 
fection  in  the  shadow  of  his  own  vine  and  fig- 
tree  ;  shed  their  sweetest  perfume  upon  the  domestic 
hearth." 

"  As  you  perceive,  my  good  cousin's  partiality  for 
me  tempts  her  to  become  poetically  extravagant  in 
her  expressions,"  Mr.  Withers  said  to  his  wife,  in 
pretended  apology,  looking  well  pleased,  neverthe 
less. 

"  I  could  not  have  a  more  patient  auditor  than 
Mrs.  Withers,  I  am  sure,"  rejoined  Harriet.  "  Mrs. 
Withers  will  never  take  exception  to  my  honest  en 
thusiasm." 

Constance  answered  by  her  stereotyped  languid 
smile,  wondering  inly  at  the  complacency  with  which 
a  man  of  her  spouse's  years  and  shrewdness  heark 
ened  to  the  bold  flattery  of  his  parasite. 

The  exhibition  ceased  to  astonish  her  before  she 
had  lived  in  the  same  house  with  the  cousins  for  a 
month.  Within  the  same  period,  she  was  gradually 
reduced  to  the  position  of  a  cipher  in  the  manage 
ment  of  the  establishment.  After  that  first  day, 
Miss  Field  had  not  offered  to  abdicate  the  seat  at  the 


33-t  CHARYDDIS. 

head  of  the  table,  except  at  the  only  dinner-party 
they  had  given.  Then,  the  handsome  Mrs.  Withers 
appeared  in  pearl-colored  satin  and  diamonds  as  the 
mistress  of  ceremonies  to  a  dozen  substantial  citizens 
and  their  expensively  attired  wives,  endured  the  two 
hours  spent  at  table,  and  the  two  duller  ones  in  the 
great  parlors,  where  the  small  company  seemed  lost, 
and  everybody  talked  as  if  afraid  of  his  own  voice. 
She  was  no  gayer  than  the  rest  by  the  time  the  enter 
tainment  was  half  over.  The  atmosphere  of  respecta 
ble  stupidity  was  infectious,  and  this  pervaded  every 
nook  of'  her  new  home.  In  her  brother's  house  she 
had  had  young  visitors,  and  there  was,  at  the  dullest, 
the  hope  of  release  to  console  her.  Now  she  was 
"settled  in  life,"  could  sit  down  with  idle  hands,  and 
spend  her  days  in  contemplation  of  her  grandeur. 
She  had  married  well.  Nobody  looked  askance  at 
her  when  old  maids  were  the  subjects  of  pity  or  ridi 
cule.  The  most  censorious  could  not  couple  her 
name  with  the  dread  word — dependence.  She  had 
no  household  cares.  Mr.  "Withers  and  Miss  Field  re 
lieved  her  of  all  such. 

And  the  mistress  of  the  mansion  was  left  to  her 
own  devices  ?  By  no  means.  If  her  husband  was 
fastidious,  he  was  also  tyrannical.  He  dictated  not 
only  what  dress  his  wife  should  appear  in  daily,  but 
also  what  laces  and  ornaments  she  should  sport ;  at 
what  hours  she  should  take  the  air  ;  whom  she  must 
visit  and  whom  invite ;  what  songs  she  should  sing 
to  him  when  he  asked  for  music  in  the  evening,  and 
when  the  day  should  close — the  day  so  wearisome  in 


CHAETBDIS.  335 

its  similitude  to  all  that  had  preceded  and  those 
which  should  follow  it. 

"  My  cousin  is  a  man  with  aspirations  above  the 
frivolities  of  fashionable  life,  and  excitement  is  inju 
rious  to  his  health,"  Miss  Field  notified  the  bride, 
the  day  after  her  home-bringing.  "  I  fear  Mrs.  Wi 
thers  will  tire  of  the  even  tenor  of  our  way  ?  " 

"  I  like  quiet,"  Constance  replied. 

But  she  did  not  mean  stagnation.  She  was  mar 
ried  in  April,  and  on  the  first  of  July  the  trio  remov 
ed  to  Mr.  Withers'  country-seat.  Here  Constance 
was  to  find  that  the  dead  level  of  her  existence  had 
yet  a  lower  plain  of  dulness.  There  was  not  a  neigh 
bor  within  four  miles,  hardly  a  farm-house  in  sight. 

"  We  recruit  here  after  the  dissipation  of  the  win 
ter,"  Miss  Field  said,  enjoyingly.  "  The  solitude  is 
enrapturing.  One  can  sleep  all  day  long,  if  she 
likes." 

This  proved  to  be  her  favorite  method  of  recupera 
ting  her  exhausted  energies.  Mr.  Withers,  too,  liked 
a  post-prandial  siesta,  "  prescribed  by  his  physician 
as  eminently  conducive  to  digestion."  Constance  was 
not  more  lonely  when  they  slept  than  when  they  were 
awake.  The  horrible  sterility  of  her  life  was  not  to 
be  ameliorated  by  their  society.  If  common placen ess 
be  a  crime,  Mr.  Withers  and  his  cousin  were  offenders 
of  an  aggravated  type.  Harriet's  affectations  and 
Elnathan's  platitudes  were  to  the  tortured  senses  of 
the  third  person  of  the  party  less  endurable  than  the 
cicada's  shrill  monotone  through  the  hot  summer  day, 
and  the  katydid's  endless  refrain  at  night.  Her 


336  'CHARYBDIS. 

chains,  which  had  hitherto  paralyzed  her  by  their 
weight,  began  to  gall  and  fret  into  her  spirit.  She 
grew  unequal  in  temper,  nervous,  and  restless  under 
the  restrictions  imposed  by  her  spouse.  An  insane 
impulse  beset  her  to  defy  his  authority,  and  set  at 
naught  his  counsels; 'to  rush  into  some  outrageous 
freak  that  should  shock  him  out  of  his  propriety,  and 
provoke  the  prudish  toad-eater  to  natural  speech  and 
action. 

This  madness  was  never  stronger  than  on  one  Au 
gust  afternoon  when  she  escaped  from  the  house,  leav 
ing  the  cousins  to  the  enjoyment  of  their  recuperative 
naps  in  their  respective  chambers,  and  took  her  way 
to  the  mountain  back  of  the  villa.  She  had  never 
explored  it,  tempting  as  was  the  shade  of  the  hem 
locks  and  pines  that  grew  up  to  the  summit,  and  the 
walls  of  gray  rock  revealed  through  the  rifts  of  the 
foliage.  A  current  of  fragrance,  the  odor  of  the  re- 

O  O  i 

sinous  woods,  flowed  down  to  greet  her  ere  she  reach 
ed  the  outskirts  of  the  forest,  and  the  lulling  murmur 
of  the  wind  in  the  evergreen  boughs  was  like  the 
sound  of  many  and  wooing  waters.  The  tender 
green  tassels  of  the  larches  tapped  her  head  as  she 
bowed  beneath  their  low  branches,  and  the  wide 
hemlocks  were  spread  in  benediction  above  her.  She 
was  alone  with  nature — free  for  one  short  hour  to 
think  her  own  thoughts  and  act  out  her  desires.  She 
laughed  as  a  bushy  cedar  knocked  off  her  hat  at  the 
instant  that  she  tore  her  dress  upon  a  bramble. 

"  They  are  leagued  with  my  legal  proprietor  in  the 
commendable  business  of  repressing  the  lawless  vaga- 


CHARYBDIS.  337 

ries  of  those  who  cannot  get  their  fill  of  natural  beau 
ties  through  the  windows  of  a  state-chariot.  But  I 
shall  have  my  frolic  all  the  same." 

Another  and  a  higher  peak  tempted  her  when  she 
had  sat  for  a  while  upon  a  boulder  crowning  the  first, 
revelling  in  the  view  of  valley  and  hill,  including  the 
basin  in  which  nestled  the  house,  and  the  plain  open 
ing  eastward  toward  the  sea  and  civilization.  The 
second  height  was  precipitous,  in  some  places  almost 
perpendicular.  From  treading  fearlessly  and  rapidly 
from  crag  to  crag,  she  came  to  pulling  herself  up 
gravelly  banks  by  catching  at  the  stout  underbrush, 
and  steadying  herself  among  rolling  stones  by  tufts  of 
wiry  grass.  But  she  kept  on,  and  forgot  aching  feet, 
scant  breath,  and  blistered  hands  when  she  stood 
finally  upon  a  broad  plateau  hundreds  of  feet  above 
the  house  that  had  dwindled  into  a  toy  cottage  and 
the  environing  plantations  of  young  trees  like  patches 
in  a  herb-garden. 

"  This  is  life !  "  she  cried  out  in  a  sudden  transport, 
and  sat  her  down  upon  a  cushion  of  gray  moss  in 
the  shadow  of  a  cedar,  to  gaze,  and  wonder,  and  re 
joice. 

She  made  a  discovery  presently.  A  spring,  clear  and 
impetuous,  burst  from  between  two  overhanging  rocks, 
and  chose  the  shortest  route  to  the  valley,  babbling 
with  all  its  little  might.  It  was  joined,  before  it  had 
gone  many  feet,  by  other  rivulets,  and  from  a  point 
midway  in  the  descent,  where  the  cliffs  were  steepest, 
came  up  the  shout  of  a  waterfall.  This,  and  the  tire 
less  murmur  of  the  evergreens,  made  up  the  music  of 
15 


338  CHARYBDIS. 

this  upper  sanctuary,  until  Constance's  voice  arose  from 
the  rocky  table,  sweet,  full,  exultant. 

"  The  wild  streams  leap  with  headlong  sweep 
In  their  curbless  course  o'er  the  mountain  steep ; 
All  fresh  and  strong  they  foam  along, 
Waking  the  rocks  with  their  cataract  song. 
My  eye  bears  a  glance  like  the  beam  on  a  lance 
As  I  watch  the  waters  dash  and  dance. 
I  burn  with  glee,  for  I  love  to  see 
The  path  of  anything  that's  free. 
I  love — I  love — oh,  I  love  the  free ! 
I  love — I  love — I  love  the  free  I 

"  The  skylark  springs  with  dew  on  his  wings, 
And  up  in  the  arch  of  heaven  he  sings — 
'  Tra-la-tra-la  1 '  Oh,  sweeter  far 
Than  the  notes  that  come  through  a  golden  bar. 
The  thrall  and  the  state  of  the  palace  gate 
Are  what  my  spirit  has  learned  to  hate" — 

The  strain  ceased  abruptly,  and,  in  place  of  the  rapt 
musician,  borne  above  the  power  of  earthly  woes 
to  crush,  and  petty  vexations  to  sting,  a  woman 
grovelled  upon  the  mossy  cushion,  weeping  hot,  fast 
tears,  and  beating  against  the  rough  rock  with  a  child's 
folly  of  desperation  the  white  hand  that  wore  the 
badge  of  her  servitude. 

"What  was  she  but  a  caged  bird,  bidden  to  preen  its 
feathers  and  warble  the  notes  its  master  dictated,  be 
tween  golden  bars  ?  A  slave  to  whom  state  and  thrall 
meant  one  and  the  same  abhorrent  thing  ?  What  had 
she  to  do,  henceforward,  with  dreams  of  beauty  and 
freedom — she,  who  had  signed  away  her  liberty  of 


CHARTBDIS.  339 

spirit  and  person,  voluntarily  accepting  in  their 
stead  the  most  foul  captivity  a  pure  and  upright  wo 
man  can  know  ?  She  felt  herself  to  be  utterly  vile — 
plague-spotted  in  soul  and  flesh  in  the  lonely  sublimity 
of  this  mountain-temple — a  leper,  condemned  and  in 
curable,  constrained  to  cry  out  at  the  approach  of 
every  passer-by,  "  Unclean !  unclean ! "  It  would  have 
been  better  for  her  to  beg  her  bread  upon  the  door 
steps  of  the  wealthy,  and  failing  that,  to  die  by  the 
wayside,  with  starvation  and  cold,  than  to  live  the  life 
of  nominal  respectability  and  abundance,  of  real  de 
gradation  and  poverty  which  were  now  hers. 

The  tears  were  dried,  but  she  still  sat  on  the  gray 
carpet,  clutching  angrily  at  it  and  the  wild-flowers 
peeping  through  the  crevices  of  the  rock,  rending  them 
as  passion  had  torn  her ;  her  bosom  heaving  with  the 
unspent  waves  of  excitement  and  a  mutinous  pout 
upon  her  lips,  when  a  crackling  among  the  brushwood 
thrilled  her  with  an  uncomfortable  sensation  of  alarm. 

Before  she  could  regain  her  feet  or  concert  her 
scheme  of  defence  or  flight,  the  nearest  cedar  boughs 
were  pushed  aside,  and  a  man  stepped  into  the  area 
fenced  in  by  the  hardy  mountain  evergreens.  With 
subsiding  fears  as  her  quick  eye  inventoried  the  va 
rious  particulars  of  his  neat  travelling-suit,  gentle 
manly  bearing,  pleasant  countenance,  and  deferential 
aspect  toward  herself,  Constance  arose,  visibly  embar 
rassed,  but  dignified,  and  awaited  his  pleasure.  The 
stranger  betrayed  neither  surprise  nor  confusion. 
Walking  directly  up  to  her,  he  removed  his  hat,  bow 
ing  low,  with  a  bright,  cordial  smile. 


340 


CHARTED  IS. 


"Unless  I  am  greatly  mistaken,  I  have  the  pleasure 
of  seeing  my  brother's  wife.  And  you  are  more  fa 
miliar  with  my  name  and  my  handwriting  than  with 
my  face.  I  am  Edward  Withers  ! " 


CHAPTEK  III. 

DON'T  understand  how  you  happened  'to 
cross  that  rough  mountain  in  your  route 
from  the  depot,"  said  the  elder  brother, 
when  the  family  assembled  that  evening 
for  what  Miss  Field  always  denominated  a 
"  sociable,  old-fashioned  tea,"  which,  in  the  country, 
was  served  at  the  town  dinner  hour.  "  Could  you 
obtain  no  conveyance  at  the  station  ? " 

"  None — unless  I  chose  to  wait  several  hours.  Sur 
mising,  at  once,  that  my  letter  had  not  arrived  in 
season  to  notify  you  of  my  coming,  I  left  my  baggage 
in  charge  of  the  station-master,  and  set  out  on  foot. 
I  pleased  myself  when  I  was  here,  two  years  ago,  with 
surveying  an  air-line  between  your  house  and  the 
nearest  point  of  the  railroad.  If  one  does  not  mind 
some  pretty  steep  hills,  he  can  save  at  least  two  miles 
by  availing  himself  of  my  topographical  skill.  It  wns- 
a  pleasant  variety  to  me,  after  six  hours  in  a  narrow 
car-seat,  to  stretch  my  limbs  over  the  rocky  pass  and 
breathe  the  fresh  air  of  the  wild  woods  instead  of 
smoke  and  cinders." 


342  CHARTED  IS. 

"  The  mystery  to  me  is  how  and  where  you  met 
Mrs.  Withers!"  chirped  vivacious  Harriet.  "Do 
explain !  I  was  never  so  astonished  in  my  life  as 
when  I  saw  you  two  walking  up  the  avenue,  talking 
together  like  old  friends." 

"As  we  are,"  smiled  Edward  at  his  sister-in-law. 
"  She  was  sitting  at  the  foot  of  a  cedar  near  my  pro 
jected  road,  enjoying  the  prospect  beneath  her.  I 
recognized  her  from  her  resemblance  to  the  photo 
graph  you  sent  me  while  I  was  abroad,  Elnathan ; 
walked  up  to  her,  like  the  impertinent  fellow  some 
people  think  I  am  ;  introduced  myself,  and  offered  to 
escort  her  home." 

"  You  should  have  taken  a  servant  with  you,  Con 
stance,"  said  her  husband,  magisterially.  "It  is  not 
safe  or  proper  for  a  lady  to  ramble  alone  in  this  thinly- 
settled  neighborhood." 

"  There  are  charcoal-burners  in  the  mountains  !  " 
Miss  Harriet  interjected,  shudderingly.  "  The  most 
ferocious-looking  creatures,  with  long  beards  and 
black  faces.  I  saw  one  once  when  we  were  driving 
out.  And  there  used  to  be  bears,  when  the  country 
was  first  settled  " — 

"  And  wolves,  and  catamounts,  and  red  Indians, 
with  no  beards  at  all !  "  finished  the  younger  Withers, 
warningly.  "Mrs.  Withers,  let  me  advise  you*  to 
take  me  along  whenever  you  stir  beyond  the  garden 
fence.  I  saw  a  Rocky  Mountain  savage  once,  and 
last  year  was  one  of  a  party  that  went  out  on  a  bear- 
hunt,  in  Norway.  We  saw  nothing  of  Bruin,  it  is 
true,  but  my  instructions  how  to  act  in  case  he  crossed 


OHARTBDIS.  343 

my  path  were  so  minute,  that  I  am  confident  I  should 
prove  a  valiant  protector  in  time  of  need." 

The  invitation  thus  playfully  given  was  renewed  in 
earnest  on  the  following  day.  The  brother  and  sister- 
in-law  were  excellent  friends  from  the  moment  of  their 
meeting.  The  travelled  member  of  the  eminent  bank 
ing-firm  of  "  Withers  Brothers  "  was  about  thirty  years 
of  age,  and  attractive  in  person,  rather  from  a  certain 
grace  and  elegance  of  bearing,  and  a  frank,  intelli 
gent  expression,  than  from  regularity  of  feature.  He 
had  read  much,  and  seen  many  lands,  and  knew  how 
to  use  the  knowledge  thus  gained  for  the  entertain 
ment  of  his  companions.  A  passionate  lover  of  music, 
he  was  not  slow  in  discovering  Constance's  kindred 
tastes.  His  coming  gave  a  different  complexion  to 
life  in  the  secluded  country-house.  There  were  horse 
back  rides  before  breakfast,  and  diligent  practice  with 
voice  ,and  instruments — piano,  flute,  and  violin,  be 
sides  a  couple  of  hours'  reading  in  the  forenoon ;  then 
came  the  after-dinner  walk,  seldom  ending  until  sun 
set.  In  the  evening,  Elnathan  Withers  dozed  in  his 
stuffed  chair,  while  he  tried  to  beat  time  to  the  duet 
going  on  at  the  other  end  of  the  room,  and  Harriet, 
bolt  upright  in  the  middle  of  a  sofa,  did  wondrous 
things  with  a  spool  of  cotton  or  silk  and  a  crochet- 
needle — and  took  observations  with  her  beady  eyes. 

She  was  discreet  as  to  the  result  of  these.  For 
aught  that  could  be  gathered  from  her  words  or  con 
duct,  she  approved  entirely  of  the  growing  intimacy 
between  the  married  lady  and  the  agreeable  bachelor. 
Elnathan  was  not  a  man  of  fine  feelings  and  strong 


344  CHARYBDIS. 

affections.  He  had  made  up  his  mind  to  marry  be 
cause  a  stylish  wife  would  add  to  his  individual  con 
sequence,  and  adorn  his  already  princely  establish 
ment.  Constance  Romaine  pleased  his  critical  eye, 
and  captivated  whatever  of  fancy  dwelt  in  his  prac 
tical  nature.  Yet,  having  \vedded,  he  trusted  her. 
She  offended  him  sometimes.  He  often  wished  that 
she  were  interpenetrated  with  something  of  Harriet's 
reverence  for  himself;  that  she  would  pi\t  forth  more 
effort  to  anticipate  his  wishes,  and  conform  herself  in 
all  respects  to  his  ideas  of  fitness  in  demeanor  and 
conversation.  He  was  never  harsh  in  his  treatment 
of  these  deficiencies,  but  his  pertinacious  schooling, 
his  curbing  and  dictating,  the  portentous  shake  of  his 
head  and  solemn  curvature  of  the  brows,  irritated  her 
to  the  extreme  of  forbearance. 

Edward  had  not  been  twelve  hours  in  the  house  be 
fore  he  perceived  this  endeavor  on  his  brother's  side 
to  mould  a  mature  woman  into  the  likeness  of  his 
prim  ideal,  and  the  effect  wrought  by  it.  He  had  sus 
pected  it  in  the  course  of  his  initial  interview  with  his 
brother's  wife  upon  the  mountain.  He  never  told  her 
that,  attracted  by  her  singing,  he  had  stealthily  neared 
the  spot  where  she  sat,  and,  unseen  by  her,  been  a 
witness  of  the  tearful  struggle  between  her  real  sell 
and  Fate.  He  had  pitied  her  heartily  then,  while 
comparatively  ignorant  of  the  reason  for  her  seditious 
emotion.  His  compassion  was  more  profound  as  he 
better  understood  the  relations  between  the  ill-matched 
pair.  Had  his  personal  liking  for  his  new  sister  been 
less  decided,  he  would  have  pronounced  her  unhappi- 


CHARYBDIS.  345 

ness  to  be  the  righteous  punishment  of  her  crime  and 
folly  in  having  linked  her  destiny  with  that  of  a  man 
whom  she  did  not  love.  He  had  known  dozens  of 
other  women  who  did  the  same,  at  the  bidding  of 
similar  motives,  and  his  sympathies  had  lain  dormant. 
But  this  one  had  heart  and  intellect,  and  both  were 
famishing. 

I  have  said  that  Mr.  Withers'  sensibilities  were  not 
lively,  nor  his  loves  intense.  But  of  all  people  living 
this,  his  only  brother,  had  most  hold  upon  his  heart, 
most  influence  upon  his  judgment.  He  made  much 
of  him  after  his  formal  style;  listened  with  obvious 
respect  and  secret  pride  to  his  opinions,  and  conceived 
the  notion  that  his  wife  was  highly  honored  when 
Edward  singled  her  out  as  the  object  of  his  marked 
attentions,  and  did  not  disguise  the  pleasure  he,  the 
lion  of  many  brilliant  circles,  took  in  her  society. 
This  fulness  of  confidence  in  them  both,  and  his  un 
selfish  regard  for  his  nearest  living  relative,  might 
have  begotten  softer  and  kindlier  sentiments  toward 
him  in  Constance's  breast  but  for  the  palpable  fact 
that  he  encouraged  the  association,  not  because  it 
brought  her  enjoyment,  but  as  a  means  of  prolonging 
Edward's  stay  with  them. 

"  You  seem  to  amuse  my  brother,"  he  said  to  his 
wife,  one  morning,  as  she  was  arraying  herself  for  her 
ride.  "  His  admiration  of  you  is  highly  compliment 
ary.  I  trust  you  will  leave  no  means  untried  to  in 
duce  him  to  remain  with  us  some  weeks  longer.  It 
gratifies  me  to  see  how  amicably  you  get  on  together, 
and  the  friendship  is  especially  creditable  to  Edward, 
15* 


346  CHARYBDIS. 

inasmuch  as  lie  was  universally  regarded  as  my  heir 
prior  to  my  marriage." 

"  In  that  case,  he  deserves  all  the  courtesy  I  can 
show  him,"  mused  Constance,  going  thoughtfully 
down  to  her  steed  and  cavalier.  "  I  do  not  know 
many  men  who  would  be  so  complaisant  to  a  stum 
bling-block  in  the  path  to  worldly  advancement." 

This  conversation  would  have  thrown  her  off  her 
guard  had  she  ever  considered  it  prudent  to  be  wary 
in  an  association  at  once  so  natural  and  innocent. 
She  had  always  liked  Edward,  and  was  growing  to 
like  him  better  every  hour.  They  were  near  the 
same  age,  and,  being  of  harmonious  temperaments, 
they  usually  enjoyed  the  same  things.  He  was  good, 
kind,  and  sprightly ;  amused  and  interested  as  much  as 
Mr.  Withers  and  Harriet  wearied  her.  This  was  the 
reason  why  the  sun  shone  more  brightly ;  the  breeze 
was  more  odorous ;  her  favorite  exercise  more  inspirit 
ing  on  that  early  midsummer  morn  than  these  had 
ever  been  before. 

"  I  can  hardly  believe  that  I  enter,  to-day,  upon  the 
third  week  of  my  sojourn  in  this  region, "said  Edward, 
when  the  steeply-rising  ground  compelled  them  to 
slacken  their  speed. 

"Is  it  possible?"  The  exclamation  was  not  a 
polite  and  meaningless  formula,  as  Constance  brought 
her  startled  eyes  around  to  his.  "  It  seems  a  very 
little  while  ago  that  you  came  to  us.  You  do  not 
think  of  leaving  us  soon,  I  hope  ?  " 

"  I  cannot  say  positively  how  long  I  shall  stay. 
This  visit  is  a  welcome  exchange  for  my  long  wander- 


CHARTED  IS.  347 

ings.  This — my  brother's  home — is  the  only  one  I 
have  in  America.  Yet  I  was  dissatisfied  with  it  last 
year.  Elnathan  was  often  absent — you  know  best 
upon  what  business" — smiling,  meaningly,  "and,  to 
be  candid  with  you,  our  Cousin  Harriet  is  not  the 
person  whom  I  should  voluntarily  select  as  my  only 
companion  in  a  desert.  But  for  my  gun  and  fishing- 
rod,  I  should  have  committed  suicide,  or  run  away 
and  left  her  to  the  tender  mercies  of  the  Hibernian 
domestics  and  the  bears.  I  would  not  be  so  com 
municative  touching  her  to  any  but  a  member  of  the 
family.  But  she  is  one  of  my  betes  noires.  I  never 
liked' her." 

"  Nor  I !  "  answered  Constance,  energetically. 

''  Then,  my  little  sister,  you  and  I  should  unite  our 
forces  to  counteract  her  influence  witli  my  brother. 
His  disposition  is,  in  some  respects,  singularly  guile 
less.  He  believes  that  Harriet's  officious  regard  for 
his  comfort,  and  deference  to  his  wishes  and  opinions, 
have  their  root  in  sincere  attachment  for  himself. 
We  know  better — know  her  to  be  as  mercenary  as 
she  thinks  herself  cunning,  and  that  she  clings  to 
him  as  the  leech  does  to  him  whose  blood  is  fatten 
ing  it.  I  lose  all  patience  with  her  fawning  and  flat 
teries,  when  I  recollect  that  these  are  the  tricks  by 
which  she  hopes  to  earn  her  living,  and,  at  his  de 
cease,  a  comfortable  legacy." 

Constance's  face  was  averted,  and  screened  from 
his  view  by  her  willow  plume.  Her  voice  was  low, 
and  had  in  it  ail  inflexion  of  mournful  charity  for  the 
assailed  parasite,  or  an  echo  borrowed  from  some  sor- 


34:8  CHAEYBDIS. 

rowful  reminiscence.  "  She  is  a  woman,  and  poor!" 
she  said.  "  A  woman,  too,  whom  society  forbids, 
upon  penalty  of  banishment  from  the  circle  in  which 
she  was  born  and  bred,  to  seek  a  livelihood  by  ma 
nual  labor.  It  is  easy  for  men  to  talk  of  freedom  of 
thought  and  action.  The  world  is  before  them.  To 
them,  the  bread  of  charity  and  dependence  mean  one 
and  the  same  thing.  The  latter  is  the  only  nourish 
ment  of  most  women,  from  the  cradle  to  the  tomb. 
I  wish  the  passage  between  the  two  were  shorter — for 
their  sake." 

"  I  never  looked  at  the  subject  in  that  light  be 
fore,"  was  Edward's  remorseful  reply.  "  Poor  old 
Harriet!  I  see  now  how  much  more  she  merits  pity 
than  contempt." 

"  She  is  no  worse  off  than  thousands  of  her  sis 
ters,"  said  Constance,  in  harsher  judgment,  u  Con 
tent  yourself  with  giving  thanks  that  you  were  born 
a  man ! " 

She  had  spoken  out  of  the  pain  of  a  wrung  spirit, 
with  no  thought  of  pleading  her  own  cause.  She 
was  too  proud  to  murmur,  least  of  all  to  her  hus 
band's  brother.  But  the  conversation  was  a  key  that 
unlocked  for  her  in  his  heart  recesses  of  interest  and 
sympathy  which  must  else  have  remained  forever 
barred  against  a  woman  who,  whatever  were  her  vir 
tues  and  fascinations,  had  deliberately  bartered  her 
charms,  and  perjured  herself  in  order  to  secure  an 
eligible  settlement. 

"  And,  to  do  her  justice,  she  is  superior  to  the  prac 
tice  of  the  arts  that  make  Harriet  acceptable  to  my 


CHARYBDI8.  349 

brother,  and  odious  to  everybody  else,"  he  meditated. 
"  She  offers  no  profession  of  devotion  to  the  man  she 
has  married,  while  she  accords  to  him  the  respectful 
duty  of  a  wife.  Elnathan  seems  satisfied.  Perhaps 
he  craves  nothing  warmer.  Pray  Heaven  he  may 
never  guess  of  how  much  fate  has  defrauded  him,  in 
withholding  from  him  the  free,  glad  affection  of  a 
true  woman  ! " 

If  there  were  any  change  in  his  behavior  to  Con 
stance  after  this,  it  was  to  be  discerned  in  a  gentler 
address,  in  unobtrusive  regard  for  her  wishes,  ex 
pressed  or  surmised,  and  a  prolongation  of  his  stay  in 
a.  house  that  held  so  few  attractions  for  her.  That 
this  arrangement  was  highly  satisfactory  to  his  brother 
was  not  without  effect  in  shaping  his  conduct.  That 
Harriet  plied  him  with  solicitations  to  remain  before 
his  decision  was  announced,  and  was  loudly  voluble 
in  her  protestations  of  delight  when  the  question  was 
settled,  had  not  a  straw's  weight  with  him.  She  an 
noyed  him  less  than  formerly,  however,  either,  as  he 
explained  it  to  himself,  because  he  had  learned  charity 
from  Constance's  defence  of  the  lonely  spinster's  pol 
icy,  or  because  she  kept  herself  more  in  the  back 
ground  than  was  her  wont.  She  seemed  amiably 
disposed  towards  Constance,  too,  and  he  strove  to 
credit  her  with  kind  intentions  with  regard  to  one 
whom  most  people  in  her  situation  would  have  hated 
as  a  usurper.  She  abetted  whatever  project  of  out 
door  excursion  or  domestic  recreation  was  proposed 
by  him  for  Constance's  diversion,  offering  herself  as 
the  wife's  substitute  in  the  sober  phaeton-drive  on 


350  CHARYBDIS. 

breezy  afternoons,  that  Constance  and  Edward  might 
act  as  outriders,  and  did  not  fail  to  call  the  hus 
band's  notice  to  her  graceful  horsemanship,  and 
the  brighter  bloom  planted  in  her  cheeks  by  the  ex 
ercise.  Mr.  Withers  never  tired  of  chess,  and  the 
indefatigable  toad-eater  apparently  shared  his  zeal  on 
this  point.  The  board  was  produced  nightly  as  the 
days  became  shorter  and  the  evenings  cooler,  and 
music,  reading,  or  conversation  upon  art  and  litera 
ture  was  carried  on  for  hours  by  the  remaining  two 
of  the  quartette  without  interruption  from  the  auto 
mata  bent  over  the  checkered  surface. 

For  Harriet  could  be  taciturn  when  need  was — a 
very  lay  figure  in  dumbness  as  in  starch.  Whether 
she  ever  ceased  to  be  watchful  was  another  matter. 

It  was  October  before  the  family  made  a  formal 
removal  to  town.  One  of  the  brothers,  sometimes 
both,  spent  two  or  three  days  a  week  there  in  Sep 
tember,  and,  since  the  uncertain  sunshine  and  cold 
rains  of  autumn  confined  the  ladies  for  the  most  part 
to  the  house,  they  were  ready  to  second  the  proposi 
tion  to  seek  their  winter  quarters.  Edward  Withers 
was  regularly  installed  as  one  of  his  brother's  house 
hold,  and  under  his  auspices  city  life  also  put  on  a 
new  face  for  Constance.  He  had  a  box  at  the  opera, 
and  Elnathan  was  foremost  to  suggest  that  Constance 
should  accompany  him  thither. 

"  That  is,  when  you  are  not  engaged  to  escort  single 
ladies,"  added  the  senior,  with  a  dry  smile. 

"  Which  will  not  happen  often  if  I  can  have  my 
sister's  company  instead,"  replied  the  other,  cordially. 


CHAETBDTS.  351 

"  But  cannot  we  make  up  a  family  party  of  four  to 
morrow  night  ?  I  can  promise  you  a  treat." 

"Musical  treats,  when  they  are  operatic,  are  thrown 
away  upon  me,"  was  the  answer.  "  But  I  am  anxious 
that  Constance  shall  keep  up  her  practising,  and,  to 
this  end,  desire  her  to  have  every  opportunity  of  im 
proving  her  taste  and  style.  You  and  she  can  give 
home-concerts  of  the  latest  gems  in  this  line  for  Har 
riet's  benefit  and  mine." 

Harriet  applauded  the  idea  to  the  echo,  and  was 
careful  that  he  should  not  regret  the  young  people's 
absence  on  the  evenings  they  spent  abroad,  playing 
chess  with  him  for  a  couple  of  hours,  and  then  reading 
aloud  monetary  or  political  articles  selected  by  him 
self  until  he  dropped  into  a  doze.  They  were  left 
thus  to  themselves  more  and  more  as  the  season  ad 
vanced.  Invitations  to  parties,  concerts,  and  dinners 
rained  in  upon  Mrs.  and  the  Messrs.  Withers,  and  to 
most  of  these  Constance  went,  attended  by  Edward 
only.  Mr.  Withers  had  never  been  social  from  in 
clination,  and  he  was  only  too  glad  to  delegate  his 
duties  in  this  line  to  his  wife,  now  that  the  protection 
of  his  brother  rendered  his  attendance  unnecessary. 

Constance  did  not  confess  in  words  to  herself  how 
greatly  her  pleasure  was  augmented  by  the  exchange 
of  escorts.  It  was  natural  that  a  man  of  her  hus 
band's  age  and  disposition  should  prefer  his  own  fire 
side  to  dancing,  and  small-talk,  and  a  wearisome 
feint  of  hearkening  to  harmonies  that  were  unintelli 
gible  and  without  sweetness  to  him.  She  enjoyed 
gay  scenes  with  an  easier  conscience  that  she  did  not 


352  CHARYBDIS. 

see  his  grave  visage  at  every  turn  of  the  waltz  or 
promenade,  and  was  not  haunted  by  the  thought  of 
her  selfishness  in  having  dragged  him  from  his  be- 

o  oo  .  • 

loved  retirement.  How  much  this  feeling  of  relief 
was  intensified  by  the  circumstance  that  her  willing 
cavalier  was  the  most  delightful  talker,  one  of  the 
best  dancers,  arid,  assuredly,  the  most  gracefully  at 
tentive  to  his  fair  charge  in  the  cordon  of  beaux  who 
frequented  the  fashionable  resorts  just  named,  did  not 
enter  into  her  complacent  calculations.  She  was  on 
excellent  terms  with  herself  and  a,ll  about  her  at  this 
juncture.  The  acquaintances  who  had  carped  at  her 
reserve  and  want  of  animation  in  the  few  assemblies 
at  which  she  had  appeared  as  a  bride,  candidly  avowed 
that  nothing  could  be  more  charming  than  her  affa 
bility  and  gay  good-humor,  and  that  she  was  far 
handsomer  than  they  had  supposed  at  first  sight. 

The  more  captious  subjoined,  sub  rosa,  that  it  was 
evident  she  appreciated  (convenient  word !)  Mr.  Ed 
ward  Withers,  and  how  fortunate  she  was  in  securing 
the  services  of  an  escort  so  unexceptionable  in  every 
particular,  since  her  husband  seemed  to  have  re 
nounced  society  just  as  she  fairly  entered  it. 

"  But,"  subjoined  No.  2,  audibly  delivered.  "  peo 
ple  had  different  ways  of  looking  at  these  things, 
and,  so  long  as  Mr.  Withers  lived  happily  with  his 
wife,  and  countenanced  her  in  all  she  did,  whose 
business  was  it  to  hint  at  impropriety  or  misplaced 
confidence  ? " 

That  Mr.  Withers  did  countenance  his  wife  in  her 
lively  career  was  not  to  be  denied.  It  gratified  him 


CHAEYBDIS.  353 , 

to  see  her,  magnificently  dressed,  go  forth  to  gather 
ings  at  which,  as  he  was  sure  to  hear  afterwards,  she 
was  the  object  of  general  admiration  for  her  beauty 
and  vivacity.  It  tickled  his  vanity  to  have  her  do 
the  honors  of  his  mansion  to  a  choice  company  of 
Edward's  friends  and  hers — people  in  whose  eyes  he, 
the  sedate  millionnaire,  could  never  hope  to  be  more 
than  the  respectable  representative  of  his  money-bags. 
They  were  glad  to  congregate  in  his  stately  saloon 
now,  to  partake  of  his  fine  old  wines  and  excellent 
viands,  and  unite  in  laudations  of  the  handsome  wo 
man  who  bore  his  name.  Adulation  did  not  spoil 
her,  he  was  pleased  to  observe.  She  had  never  been 
mere  -deferential  in  her  deportment  to  himself,  more 
ready  to  consult  and  obey  him  than  when  the  star  of 
her  popularity  was  highest  and  brightest.  In  this, 
she  testified  her  good  sense  and  feeling  heart.  To 
whom  should  she  be  grateful  and  dutiful,  if  not  to 
her  benefactor,  the  architect  of  her  fortune  and  hap 
piness?  Association  with  him  and  with  his  brother 
had  developed  her  finely.  He  took  credit  to  himself 
for  the  penetration  that  had  detected  the  germs  of  so 
much  that  was  estimable  and  attractive  when  she 
was  still  in  the  obscurity  of  her  brother's  house. 

"  A  happy  family,  a  thoroughly  well  organized 
establishment,"  remarked  Charles  Romaine  to  his 
wife,  at  the  close  of  a  visit  they  paid  his  sister  in  Ja 
nuary.  "  Constance  should  be  thankful  to  us  all  her 
days  for  opposing  her  absurd  transcendentalism  about 
congeniality  and  mutual  attraction,  and  the  like  pue 
rile  nonsense.  What  a  wreck  she  would  have  made 


354  CHARYBDIS. 

of  her  happiness  had  she  been  left  to  pursue  the 
course  dictated  by  her  own  caprices !  I  hope,  Mar 
garet,  that  we  shall  not  have  to  combat  the  like 
errors  in  our  daughters  when  they  grow  up." 

"  Constance  had  a  fund  of  strong  common  sense  in 
spite  of  her  crudely  extravagant  theories  upon  cer 
tain  subjects,"  rejoined  Mrs.  Romaine.  "  Thanks  to 
it,  and,  as  you  justly  observe,  to  our  counsels,  she  has 
married  better  than  any  other  young  woman  I  know. 
Yes,  I  can  ask  no  more  enviable  lot  for  our  girls  than 
one  like  hers." 

According  to  these  irrefragable  authorities,  then, 
our  heroine  had  steered  clear  of  the  rock  upon  which 
so  many  of  her  age  and  sex  have  split ;  kept  out  of 
the  current  that  would  have  stranded  her,  high  and 
forlorn,  upon  the  barren  headlands  of  celibacy ;  had, 
virtuously  eschewing  "  crude "  instinct,  and  heart- 
promptings,  and  natural  laws  (fit  only,  in  Mrs.  Ro- 
maine's  creed,  for  the  guidance  of  beasts,  and  birds, 
and  other  irrational  things),  rendered  just  and  grace 
ful  obedience  to  the  equitable  principle  prescribed 
and  practised  by  the  autocrats  of  the  "  best  circles." 
These  burning  and  shining  beacons  cease  not,  night 
nor  day,  to  warn  off  the  impetuous  young  from  the 
rigors  and  desolation  of  Scylla,  and  cast  such  illusive 
glare  upon  Charybdis  as  makes  its  seething  rapids 
seem  a  Pacific  of  delicious  calm. 

Upon  as  smooth  a  current  were  Constance  Withers' 
conscience  and  prudence  rocked  to  sleep  during  the 
early  months  of  that  winter.  "Winter!  Never  had 
summer  been  so  replete  with  light  and  warmth. 


CHARYBDI8.  355 

There  is  a  divine  delight  in  the  slow  sweep  of  the 
outer  circles  of  the  maelstrom  ;  the  half  consciousness 
of  the  awakening  heart,  like  that  of  the  babe,  who, 
aroused  from  slumber  by  his  mother's  voice,  smiles 
recognition  of  the  dear  music  before  his  eyes  are  un 
sealed  by  her  kisses,  or  his  head  is  nestled  upon  her 
bosom. 

That  to  every  human  heart  such  awakening  comes, 
sooner  or  later,  I  hold  and  believe  for  certain.  Des 
erts  of  salt  and  bitterness  there  are  in  the  spiritual  as 
in  the  material  world  ;  but  there  was  a  time  when 
the  Creator,  whose  name  is  Love,  pronounced  them 
"  very  good,"  when  as  yet  the  flood,  and  the  rain  of 
tire  and  brimstone  had  not  made  havoc  of  all  their 
pleasant  things,  nor  the  soft  soil  been  hardened  into 
flint  and  gravel  by  dearth  and  heat.  And,  to  that 
garden  of  the  Lord's  planting  there  came  a  day — 
when,  or  of  what  duration  HE  knows,  and  perchance 
HE  alone — when  the  south  wind  blew  softly,  and  all 
the  spices  thereof  flowed  out — spikenard  and  saffron, 
calamus  and  cinnamon,  with  all  trees  of  frankincense, 
myrrh,  and  aloes.  It  may  have  been  but  for  one  glad 
hour — one  moment  of  bewildering  bliss,  that  the  heart 
thus  visited  was  transformed  into  a  fountain  of  gar 
dens  ;  a  well  of  living  waters,  and  streams  from  Leba 
non.  The  next  may  have  witnessed  the  rush  of  the 
deluge  or  the  bursting  of  the  pitchy  clouds  ;  and  be 
hold  !  in  place  of  Eden,  a  lair  of  wild  beasts,  a  house 
full  of  doleful  creatures,  meet  for  the  dwelling  of  owls 
and  the  dance  of  satyrs. 

Other  visions  than  these  images  of  woe  and  terror 


356  CHARYBDIS. 

abode  with  Constance  ;  formless  fancies,  fair  as  vague ; 
specious  reveries  in  which  she  lived  through  coming 
years  as  she  was  doing  now,  surrounded  by  the  same 
outward  comforts ;  her  steps  guarded  by  the  same 
friend,  whose  mere  presence  meant  contentment ;  with 
whom  the  interchange  of  thought  and  feeling  left 
nothing  to  Be  desired  from  human  sympathy.  It  was 
a  severe  shock  that  showed  her  the  precipice  upon 
the  flowery  verge  of  which  she  lay  dreaming. 

The  brothers  were,  one  morning,  discussing  at  break 
fast  the  merits  of  a  pair  of  horses  that  had  been  offered 
for  sale  to  the  elder.  For  a  wonder,  Edward  displayed 
more  caution  in  accepting  the  jockey's  declaration  of 
their  fitness  for  family  use  than  did  his  staid  relative. 
Mr.  "Withers  was  very  obstinate  in  his  adherence  to 
whatever  principle  or  prejudice  he  believed  that  he 
had  seen  cause  to  adopt,  and  his  eye  had  been  cap 
tivated  by  the  showy  team  ;  his  credulous  hearing 
gained  by  the  adroit  tongue  of  the  dealer.  All  that 
Edward's  dissuasions  could  effect  was  acquiescence  in 
his  proposal  that  they  should  try  the  horses  before 
the  sleigh  that  afternoon,  before  deciding  upon  the 
purchase. 

Harriet  clapped  her  hands  vivaciously.  "  And  then 
you'll  drive  by  and  give  us  a  turn  behind  the  beauties  ! 
1  ana  sure  they  must  be  heavenly  from  what  Cousin 
Elnathan  says.  I  am  wild  to  see  them  !  " 

"  There  is  a  look  in  the  eye  of  one  that  bespeaks 
the  spirit  of  another  region,"  said  Edward,  apart  to 
Constance. 

"  Don't  ride  after  them  !  "  she  entreated  quickly. 


CHAETBDI8.  357 

"  Your  brother  will  yield  if  you  tell  him  plainly  how 
unsafe  you  consider  them." 

"  Not  unsafe  for  him  and  myself,  perhaps  ;  but 
hardly  the  creatures  to  be  intrusted  with  your  life  and 
limb,"  he  rejoined.  "  Rest  assured  that  I  shall  make 
a  thorough  test  of  them  before  consenting  to  the  ven 
ture.  I  shall  drive  them  myself,  and  speak  out  frank 
ly  the  result  of  the  trial.  In  whatever  else  we  may 
differ,  Elnathan  and  I  are  a  unit  in  our  care  for  your 
welfare.  So,  if  we  show  ourselves  and  the  heavenly 
span  of  quadrupeds  at  the  door  to-day,  you  need  not 
fear  to  accept  our  invitation." 

The  gentle  and  affectionate  reassurance  contrasted 
pleasantly  with  Mr.  Withers'  authoritative  mandate. 
"  Constance !  you  will  hold  yourself  in  readiness  to 
drive  out  with  us,  this  afternoon.  We  shall  call  for 
you  at  three  o'clock.  I  wish  you  and  Harriet  to  be 
entirely  prepared  for  the  ride  when  we  come.  Young 
horses  do  not  like  to  stand  in  the  cold." 

An  impulse  she  did  not  stay  to  define  drew  Con 
stance  to  the  window  as  the  two  gentlemen  descended 
the  front  steps,  side  by  side.  Mr.  Withers  was  a 
trifle  the  taller  of  the  two,  but  his  figure  was  angular 
and  unbending ;  Edward's  supple  and  elegant,  while 
scarcely  a  trace  of  family  likeness  existed  between  the 
swarthy  visage  of  the  elder,  with  its  deep-set  eyes, 
long  upper  lip,  and  high,  narrow  forehead,  and  the 
lively  glance,  clear  complexion,  and  spirited  mouth 
that  made  Edward's  physiognomy  a  goodly  sight  to 
more  eyes  than  those  that  met  the  parting  smile  he 
cast  up  at  the  parlor  window,  when  he  gained  the 


358  CHAHYBDI8. 

pavement.  He  lifted  his  hat  at  the  same  moment, 
whereas  Mr.  Withers  stalked  solemnly  on,  apparently 
forgetful  already  that  he  had  a  home  and  wife,  now 
that  his  face  was  set  office-ward. 

"  Shadow  and  sunshine ! "  reflected  the  gazer. 
"  And  they  are  not  more  unlike  in  countenance  than 
in  disposition,  aims,  and  conduct — as  dissimilar  as 
two  upright  men  can  be." 

Harriet's  shallow  treble  sounded  at  her  elbow  like 
a  repetition  of  the  last  thought.  "No  one  would 
ever  take  them  to  be  relatives,"  she  said.  "  Yet  each 
is  excellent  in  his  way.  Don't  you  think  so?  " 

"  Yes,"  answered  Constance,  moving  away. 

"  Only  their  ways  are  so  different !  "  persisted  the 
cousin.  "  I  like  Elnathan  best,  of  course,  but  Edward 
is  the  more  popular  man  of  the  two,  I  believe — isn't 
he?" 

"  I  really  do  not  know  !  "  Constance  left  the  room 
in  uttering  the  falsehood. 

Harriet  had  a  trick  of  making  her  intensely  un 
comfortable  whenever  the  talk  between  them  turned 
upon  the  brothers. 

"I  hate  comparisons!"  she  said  to  herself,  when 
she  reached  her  room.  "  And  it  is  forward  and  in 
delicate  in  her  to  institute  them  in  my  hearing." 

Convinced  that  the  sudden  heat  warming  her  heart 
and  cheeks  was  excited  by  Harriet's  impertinence,  she 
made  it  her  business  to  stop  thinking  of  the  conversa 
tion  and  its  origin  so  soon  as  she  could  dismiss  it  and 
turn  her  attention  to  pleasanter  things.  It  was  more 
innocent  and  agreeable  work,  for  instance,  to  write 


CHAR7BDIS.  359 

out  Edward's  part  of  a  new  duet  upon  a  fair  sheet  of 
paper,  which  he  could  hold  in  his  hand  as  he  stood  by 
her  at  the  piano,  the  printed  copy  being  so  blurred  as 
to  try  his  eyes.  He  was  very  slightly  near-sighted, 
although  a  casual  acquaintance  would  not  have  sus 
pected  it.  She  copied  music  legibly  and  rapidly,  and 
lately  had  hit  upon  this  happy  device  of  making  him 
some  poor  return  for  the  manifold  services  he  had 
rendered  her.  "  All  that  I  can  do  leaves  me  deplo 
rably  in  his  debt,"  she  reasoned.  "  I  never  knew 
what  was  the  fulness  and  disinterestedness  of  a  broth 
er's  love  until  I  met  him.  But  all  brothers  are  not 
so  considerate  or  so  devoted  as  is  he.  I  should  under 
stand  that." 

The  conclusion  was  in  her  mind  often  enough  every 
day  of  her  life  to  become  hackneyed,  yet  it  always 
brought  with  it  a  strange,  sweet  thrill.  Truly  sister 
ly  affection  was  a  holy  and  a  beautiful  thing !  She 
had  read  as  much  in  moral  philosophy,  and  likewise 
in  poetry.  Few  feelings  could  compare  with  it  in 
unselfish  fervor  and  constancy.  And,  as  she  had  said, 
Edward  was  one  brother  in  ten  thousand — and  not  to 
be  compared  with  common  men. 

She  began  the  preparations  for  the  drive  at  half 
past  two,  pursuant  to  her  husband's  directions.  Not 
that  she  expected  to  leave  the  house  that  afternoon. 
Edward's  judgment  being,  in  her  estimation,  but  one 
remove  from  infallibility,  slfe  could  not  believe  that 
the  trial  of  the  horses  would  result  as'Mr.  Withers 
had  predicted,  but  that  they  would  be  remanded  to 
the  stable  and  custody  of  the  unreliable  jockey  with- 


360  CHARTBDI8. 

out  approaching  her  door,  or  gladdening  Harriet's 
eyes.  Nevertheless,  the  order  had  gone  forth  that  she 
should  don  her  cloak,  furs,  hat,  and  gloves  before 
three  o'clock,  and  Mr.  Withers  would  be  displeased 
were  he  to  return  at  five,  and  find  her  in  a  home 
dress.  Harriet  tapped  at  the  door  before  she  was 
half  ready. 

"  Just  to  remind  you,  my  dear  madam,"  she  said, 
sweetly,  "  of  what  my  cousin  said  about  keeping  the 
horses  standing."  She  was  equipped  cap-a-pie  for 
the  excursion,  and  Constance  renewed  her  silent  ac 
cusation  of  impertinent  forwardness  as  she  saw  her 
trip  down  stairs  to  take  her  station  at  a  front  window, 
that  "  my  cousin  "  might  see,  at  the  first  glance,  that 
she  was  ready  and  eager  for  the  promised — and  be 
cause  promised  by  him — certain  pleasure  of  the  jaunt. 

Constance  was  surprised,  five  minutes  before  the 
hour  designated,  to  hear  a  bustle  and  men's  voices  in 
the  lower  hall.  They  had  really  come,  then,  in  spite 
of  her  prognostications.  Drawing  on  her  gloves  that 
she  might  not  be  accused  of  dilatoriness,  she  walked 
to  the  door  of  her  chamber,  when  it  was  thrown  wide 
against  her  by  her  maid. 

"  O  ma'am  !  "  she  blubbered,  her  cheeks  like  ashes, 
and  her  eyes  bulging  from  their  sockets.  "  May  all 
the  blessed  saints  have  mercy  upon  ye  !  There's  been 
the  dreadfullest  accident !  Them  brutes  of  horses 
has  run  away,  and  Mr.  Witherses  and  Mr.  Edward  is 
both  killed  dead  !  They're  a-bringing  them  up  stairs 
this  blessed  minit,  and  " — catching  her  mistress'  skirt 
as  she  dashed  past  her — "  you're  not  to  be  frightened, 


CEARYBDIS.  361 

ma'am,  the  doctor  says !     He  sent  me  up  for  to  tell 
you  careful ! " 

Unhearing  and  unheeding,  Constance  wrested  her 
dress  from  the  girl's  hold,  and  met  upon  the  upper 
landing  of  the  staircase  four  men  bearing  a  senseless 
form.  The  head  was  sunk  upon  the  breast,  and  the 
face  hidden  by  the  shoulders  of  those  who  carried 
him,  but  her  eye  fell  instantly  upon  the  right  hand 
which  hung  loosely  by  his  side.  She  recognized  the 
fur  gauntlet  that  covered  it  as  one  of  a  pair  of  riding- 
gloves  she  had  given  Edward  Withers  at  Christmas, 
and  which  he  had  worn  since  whenever  he  drove  or 
rode.  She  had  seen  him  pocket  them  that  morning 
before  going  out. 

"  Mrs.  Withers  !  my  dear  lady !  you  really  must 
not  touch  him  yet !  "  said  the  attendant  physician, 
preventing  her  when  she  would  have  thrown  her 
arms  about  the  injured  man.  He  pulled  her  back  by 
main  force,  that  the  body  might  be  carried  into  the 
chamber  she  had  just  quitted. 

"  Let  me  go !  Let  me  go  !  Do  you  hear  me  ?  "  her 
voice  rising  into  a  shrill  scream  that  chilled  the  veins 
and  pained  the  hearts  of  all  who  heard  it.  "  Dead 
or  alive,  he  belongs  to  me,  and  to  no  one  else  !  Man  ! 
how  dare  you  hold  me  ?  You  do  not  know  how  much 
I  loved  him — my  darling  !  O  my  darling  !  " 

The  doctor  was  a  muscular  man,  but,  in  her  agony 
of  despair,  she  was  stronger  than  he,  and  bade  fair  to 
master  him,  as  she  wrestled  to  undo  his  grasp  upon 
her  arms. 

"  Is  there  no  one  in  this  place  who  can  persuade 
16 


362  CHARYBDIS. 

her  to  be  calm  ? "  he  asked,  imploringly,  looking  back 
down  the  stairs,  upon  which  was  huddled  a  throng  of 
servants  and  curious  spectators  who  had  followed  the 
sad  cortege  into  the  house. 

There  was  a  movement  at  the  foot  of  the  steps, 
then  the  crowd  parted  instantly  and  silently,  unno 
ticed  by  the  frantic  woman.  She  was  still  struggling, 
threatening  and  praying  to  be  released,  when  a  pallid 
face,  streaked  with  blood,  confronted  hers — a  tender 
hand  touched  her  arm. 

"  Constance,  my  dear  sister,  my  poor  girl,  come 
with  me !  Will  you  not  ? "  said  compassionate  tones. 

"She  lias  fainted.  That  is  the  best  thing  that 
could  have  happened,"  said  the  doctor,  sustaining  the 
dead  weight  of  the  sinking  figure  with  more  ease 
than  he  had  held  the  writhing  one. 

They  bore  her  across  the  hall  to  Edward's  room  as 
the  most  convenient  retreat  for  her  in  her  insensible 
state,  and,  while  the  maid-servants  loosened  her  dress 
and  applied  restoratives,  a  more  anxious  group  was 
gathered  in  her  apartment  about  her  husband.  His 
visible  injuries  were  severe,  if  not  dangerous.  His 
collar-bone  and  right  arm  were  broken,  but  it  was 
feared  there  was  internal  and  more  serious  hurt. 
Just  as  a  gasp  and  a  hollow  groan  attested  the  return 
of  consciousness,  a  message  was  brought  to  Edward 
from  the  opposite  bed-room. 

"  She  do  call  for  you  all  the  time,  sir,  or  I  would 
not  have  made  so  bold  as  to  disturb  ye,"  said  the 
girl,  who  had  beckoned  him  to  the  entrance.  "  She 
is  a  bit  out  of  her  head,  poor  lady ! " 


CHARYBDIS.  363 

"Where  is  Miss  Field  ?  Why  does  she  not  attend 
to  Mrs.  Withers  ?"  asked  Edward,  glancing  reluctantly 
at  his  brother's  bed. 

In  after  days  he  could  smile  at  the  recollection  of 
the  reply,  uttered  with  contemptuous  indifference : 
"  Oh  !  she's  agoing  into  high-strikes  on  the  back  par 
lor  sofy." 

At  the  time,  he  was  only  conscious  of  impatience 
at  the  call  of  pity  that  obliged  him  to  leave  his  per 
haps  dying  relative  in  the  hands  of  comparative 
strangers.  He  ceased  to  regret  his  compliance  when 
the  tears  that  burst  from  Constance's  eyes  at  sight  of 
him  were  not  attended  by  the  ravings  which  had  ter 
rified  her  attendants.  He  sat  down  upon  the  edge 
of  the  bed,  and  leaned  over  to  kiss  the  sobbing  lips. 
"  My  dear  sister,  precious  child !  "  he  said,  as  a  mo 
ther  might  soothe  an  affrighted  daughter,  and  she 
dropped  her  head  upon  his  shoulder,  to  weep  herself 
into  silence,  if  not  composure. 

When  she  could  listen,  he  gave  the  history  of  the 
misadventure  in  a  few  words.  Mr.  Withers  had  in 
sisted  upon  handling  the  reins  himself.  This  account 
ed  to  the  auditor  for  his  use  of  Edward's  gloves,  as 
being  thicker  than  his,  although  their  owner  made  no 
mention  of  having  lent  them  to  him.  The  horses 
had  behaved  tolerably  well  until  they  were  within 
three  blocks  of  home,  when  they  had  shied  violently 
at  a  passing  omnibus,  jerked  the  reins  from  the  dri 
ver's  hands,  and  dashed  down  the  street.  The  sleigh 
upset  at  the  first  corner,  and  both  the  occupants  were 
thrown  out ;  Mr.  Withers  striking  forcibly  against  a 


364:  CHARY3DIS. 

lamp-post,  while  Edward  was  partially  stunned  upon 
the  curb-stone.  They  had  been  brought  to  their  own 
door  in  a  carriage,  the  younger  brother  reviving  in 
time  to  alight,  with  a  little  assistance  from  a  friendlv 
bystander,  and  to  superintend  the  other's  removal  to 
the  house  and  up  the  stairs. 

Constance  heard  him  through  without  interruption 
or  comment,  voluntarily  raised  her  head  from  its 
resting-place,  and  lay  back  upon  her  pillows,  covering 
her  face  with  her  hands.  One  or  two  'quiet  tears 
made  their  way  between  her  fingers  ere  she  removed 
them,  but  her  hysterical  sobbing  had  ceased.  "  I  am 
thankful  for  your  safety,"  she  said,  so  composedly, 
that  it  sounded  coldly  unfeeling:  "  Now  go  back  to 
your  brother.  He  needs  you,  and  I  do  not.  I  shall 
be  better  soon,  and  then  I  must  bear  my  part  in  nurs 
ing  him.  If  he  should  ask  for  me,  let  me  know  with 
out  delay."  She  sent  her  servants  out  when  he  had 
gone,  and  locked  her  door  on  the  inside. 

"Who'd  have  thought  that  she  and  Mr.  Edward 
would  take  it  so  hard  ?  "  said  the  cook,  as  exponent 
of  the  views  of  the  kitchen  cabinet.  "  If  so  be  the 
masther  shouldn't  get  over  this,  it  will  go  nigh  to 
killing  her.  I  never  knowed  she  were  that  fond  of 
him.  Ah,  well !  she  ought^  to  be,  for  it's  her  he'll 
lave  well  provided  for,  I'll  be  bound !  Them  as  has 
heaps  to  lave  has  plenty  to  mourn  for  them." 

An  hour  elapsed  before  Mr.  Withers  understood 
aright  where  he  was  and  what  had  happened,  and 
then  his  wife's  face  was  the  first  object  he  recognized. 
It  was  almost  as  bloodless  as  his,  yet  she  was  collect- 


CHARYBDI8.  365 

ed  and  helpful,  a  more  efficient  coadjutor  to  the  sur 
geons  than  was  fidgety  Harriet,  whose  buzzirigs  and 
hoverings  over  the  wounded  man  reminded  Edward 
of  a  noisy  and  persistent  gad-fly. 

The  moved  gentleness  of  Constance's*  tone  in  an 
swering  the  patient's  inquiries  was  mistaken  by  the 
attendants  for  fondest  commiseration,  and  the  family 
physician's  unspoken  thought  would  have  chimed  in 
well  with  the  servant's  verdict.  Mr.  and  Mrs.  With 
ers  were  not  reputed  to  be  a  loving  couple,  but,  in 
moments  of  distress  and  danger,  the  truth  generally 
came  to  light.  No  husband,  however  idolized,  could 
be  nursed  more  faithfully  or  have  excited  greater  an 
guish  of  solicitude  than  spoke  in  her  dry  eyes  and 
rigid  features,  even  if  her  wild  outbreak  at  first  see 
ing  him  had  not  betrayed  her  real  sentiments. 

In  her  calmer  review  of  the  scene,  Constance  could 
feel  grateful  for  the  spectators'  misconception  which 
had  shielded  her  from  "the  consequences  of  her  mad 
ness  ;  could  shudder  at  the  thought  of  the  ignominy 
she  had  narrowly  escaped.  But  this  was  not  the  gulf 
from  which  she  now  recoiled  with  horror  and  self- 
loathing  that  led  her  to  avoid  meeting  the  eyes  bent 
curiously  or  sympathizingly  upon  her,  and  to  cling  to 
the  nerveless  hand  of  him  whose  trust  she  had  be 
trayed.  To  him,  her  husband,  she  had  not  given  a 
thought  when  the  dread  tidings  of  disaster  and  death 
were  brought  to  her.  What  to  her  was  an  empty 
marriage  vow,  what  the  world's  reprobation,  when 
she  believed  that  Edward  lay  lifeless  before  her  ? 

"  Man  !  you  do  not  know  how  I  have  loved  him ! " 


366  CRAETBDIS. 

she  had  said.  She  might  have  added,  "  I  never  knew 
it  myself  until  now."  And  what  was  this  love — 
coming  when,  and  as  it  did — but  a  crime,  a  sin  to  be 
frowned  upon  by  Heaven,  and  denounced  by  man  ? 
A  blemish,  which,  if  set  upon  her  brow,  as  it  was 
upon  her  soul,  would  condemn  her  to  be  ranked  with' 
the  outcast  of  her  sex,  the  creatures  whom  austere 
matronhood  blasts  with  lightnings  of  indignant  scorn, 
and  pure  virgins  blush  to  name  ? 


CHAPTER  IV. 

i  II  ALL  you  be  too  much  engaged  at  the  office 
to-day,  Edward,  to  drive  out  with  Constance 
at  noon  ? "  questioned  Mr.  Withers,  one 
morning,  when  his  brother  came  to  his  room 
to  inquire  after  his  health,  and  to  receive  his 
commands  for  the  business-day. 

"  Certainly  not !  Nothing  would  give  me  more 
pleasure  !  "  As  he  said  it,  the  respondent  turned  with 
a  pleasant  smile  to  his  sister-in-law,  who  was  pouring 
out  her  husband's  chocolate  at  a  stand  set  in  front  of 
his  lounge. 

She  started  perceptibly  at  the  proposition,  and  her 
hand  shook  in  replacing  the  silver  pot  upon  the  tray. 
"  I  could  not  think  of  it !  "  she  said,  hastily.  "  It  is 
kind  and  thoughtful  in  you  to  suggest  it,  Elnathan, 
but,  indeed,  I  greatly  prefer  to  remain  at  home." 

"  It  is  my  preference  that  you  should  go !  "  The 
invalid  spoke  decidedly,  but  less  irascibly  than  he 
would  have  done  to  any  one  else  who  resisted  his 
authority.  "  It  is  now  four  weeks  since  my  accident, 
and  you  have  scarcely  left  the  house  in  all  that  time. 


368  CILUtTBDIS. 

You  are  growing  thin  and  pale  from  want  of  sleep 
and  exercise." 

"  I  practise  calisthenics  every  day,  as  yon  and  Doc 
tor  "VVeldon  advised,"  rejoined  Constance,  timidly. 

"But  within  doors.  You  need  the  fresh  outdoor 
air,  child.  You  have  taken  such  good  care  of  me, 
that  I  should  be  very  remiss  in  my  duty,  were  I  to 
allow  you  to  neglect  your  own  health." 

He  had  grown  very  fond  of  her  within  the  period 
he  had  mentioned,  and  showed  it,  in  his  weakness,  more 
openly  than  dignity  would  have  permitted,  had  he 
been  well.  He  put  his  hand  upon  her  shoulder,  as 
she  sat  upon  a  stool  beside  him,  the  cup  of  chocolate 
in  her  hand.  "  Recollect !  I  must  get  another  nurse 
should  your  health  fail.  You  see  how  selfish  I  am  ? " 

A  -jest  from  him  was  noteworthy,  for  its  rarity  ;  but 
Constance  could  not  form  her  lips  into  a  smile.  They 
trembled,  instead,  in  replying.  "I  see  how  good  and 
generous  you  are !  I  will  drive,  if  you  insist  upon  it, 
but  there  is  not  the  slightest  necessity  for  your  broth 
er's  escort.  John  is  very  careful  and  attentive.  Or, 
if  you  wish  me  to  have  company,  I  will  call  for  Mrs. 
Melleu.  She  has  no  carriage,  you  know." 

"Send  yours  for  her  whenever  you  like,  by  all 
means.  But,  until  I  am  able  to  accompany  you,  it  is 
my  desire  that  Edward  shall  be  with  you  in  your 
drives,  whenever  this  is  practicable.  My  late  adven 
ture  has  made  me  fearful,  I  suppose.  Call  this  a  sick 
man's  fancy,  if  you  will,  my  dear,  but  indulge  it.  At 
twelve,  then,  Edward,  the  carriage  will  be  ready. 
Ascertain  for  yourself  before  you  set  out,  that  the  har- 


CHARYBDIS.  369 

ness  is  all  right,  and  have  an  eye  to  the  coachman's 
management  of  the  horses." 

Opposition  was  futile,  but  Constance's  countenance 
was  so  downcast  at  the  prospect  of  the  excursion,  that 
Edward  made  a  pretext,  before  going  out,  to  call  her 
into  the  adjoining  sitting-room. 

"  How  have  I  forfeited  my  place  in  your  good 
graces  ? "  he  began,  in  playfulness,  that  was  lost  in  ear 
nestness  before  he  finished  his  speech.  "  I  have  tried 
to  persuade  myself  that  your  cold  avoidance  of  me,  for 
weeks  past,  and  your  rejection  of  my  services  whenever 
it  is  possible  for  you  to  dispense  with  them,  was,  in 
part,  an  unfounded  fancy  of  my  own,  and  partly  the 
result  of  your  absorption  in  the  dear  duty  that  has  de 
manded  your  time  and  thoughts.  I  have  begun,  late 
ly,  to  have  other  fears — dreads  lest  I  had  unwittingly 
wounded  or  displeased  you.  Do  me  the  justice  to  be 
lieve  that,  if  this  be  so,  the  offence  was  unconscious." 

"  You  have  offered  none — none  whatever ! "  inter 
posed  Constance,  with  cold  .emphasis.  "  I  am  sorry 
my  manner  has  given  rise  to  such  apprehensions." 

"  That  is  not  spoken  like  the  frank  sister  of  a  month 
ago,"  said  Edward,  retaining  the  hand  she  would  have 
withdrawn.  "  I  will  not  release  you  until  you  tell 
me  what  is  the  shadow  upon  the  affection  that  was  to 
me  more  dear  than  any  other  friendship,  and  which  I 
dared  hope  was  much  to  you.  Be,  for  one  instant, 
yourself,  and  tell  me  all." 

She  was  very  pale,  but,  in  desperation,  she  tried  to 
laugh.  "  You  must  not  call  me  to  account  for  my 
looks  and  actions  nowadays,  Edward.  I  think,  some- 
16* 


370  CHARTED  18. 

times,  that  I  am  not  quite  sane.  I  have  gone  through 
much  suffering ;  been  the  prey  of  imaginings,  that  al 
most  deprived  me  of  reason,  besides  enduring  the  real 
and  present  trial.  And  Heaven  knows  how  unready 
I  was  for  it  all ! " 

"  One  word,  my  dear  girl,  and  my  inquisition  is 
over.  Assure  me  honestly,  and  without  fear  of  wound 
ing  me,  have  you  ever,  in  your  most  secret  thought, 
blamed  me  for  the  casualty  which  so  nearly  widowed 
you  ?  I  did  try,  as  you  can  bear  me  witness,  to  dis 
suade  him  whom  we  both  love  from  the  experiment 
that  cost  him  so  dear.  The  idea  that  you  may  have 
doubted  this  has  pained  me  inexpressibly." 

"  Dismiss  the  suspicion  at  once  and  forever ! "  Con 
stance  looked  steadily  into  his  face.,  and  spoke  calmly. 
"  The  thought  has  never  entered  my  mind.  I  blame 
no  one  for  my  trouble — excepting  myself! " 

Before  she  could  divine  his  purpose,  Edward  had 
put  his  arm  over  her  shoulder  and  pressed  his  lips  to 
hers.  "Let  bygones  be  bygones!  "he  said,  brightly 
and  fondly.  "  We  have  too  much  to  live  and  to  hope 
for  to  waste  time  in  nursing  unhealthy  surmises  and 
fears." 

"  Oh !  "  The  sharp  little  interjection  came  from 
the  threshold  of  the  door  leading  into  the  hall,  where 
Miss  Field  was  discovered  in  a  fine  attitude  of  bashful 
apology,  faintly  flavored  with  prudish  consternation. 
"  I  did  not  dream  you  were  here.  I  was  on  my  way 
to  my  cousin's  room ! "  she  continued,  in  a  prodigious 
flutter  of  ringlets  and  shoulders.  "  I  beg  a  million 
pardons,  I  am  sure.  " 


CHARY BDIS.  371 

"  You  need  not  beg  one ! "  said  the  undaunted 
Edward,  •  without  releasing  Constance.  "  Connie 
and  I  have  been  settling  a  trivial  misunderstanding 
in  good  boy-and-girl  style — have  just  'kissed  and 
made  up,'  and  we  now  mean  to  be  better  friends  than 
ever." 

"  lie  !  he !  you  are  excessively  candid,  to  be  sure  ! " 
tittered  Harriet.  "But " — shaking  her  black  curls — 
"Mrs.  Withers  knows  men  and  human  nature  too  well 
to  believe  quite  all  you  say.  We  must  not  forget,  my 
dear  madam,  that  men  were  deceivers  ever." 

"  You  speak  feelingly,"  said  Edward,  carelessly,  fol 
lowing  Constance  with  his  eye.  as  she  moved  silently 
toward  her  husband's  chamber.  "  I  shall  caution 
the  lady  of  my  love — should  the  gods  ever  bestow  one 
upon  me — not  to  sip  of  the  bitter  waters  of  your  wis 
dom." 

Had  he  seen  the  glitter  of  the  round,  black  orbs 
that  pursued  his  retiring  figure,  he  might  have  made 
a  more  thoughtful  exit,  his  run  down  the  stairs  been 
less  swift,  the  air  he  hummed,  as  he  went,  less  gay. 

He  had  a  pleasant  drive ;  Constance  an  hour  of 
mingled  sweet  and  bitterness.  It  was  difficult  to  bear 
her  part  in  the  apparent  renewal  of  the  familiar  inter 
course  of  other  days,  without  relaxing  the  severe 
guard  she  had  set  upon  herself  from  the  moment  she 
discovered  the  true  nature  of  the  sentiment  she  enter 
tained  for  her  husband's  brother.  She  could  not  help 
delighting  in  his  society,  in  the  manifold  proofs  of 
loving  concern  for  her  comfort  and  happiness  of 
which  she  was  the  recipient.  Yet,  underlying 


372  CUARTBDIS. 

secret  and  fleeting  joy,  was  the  ever  present  shame 
that  marked  her  remembrance  of  her  guilty  weak 
ness,  and  the  despairing  knowledge  that  remorse, 
duty,  and  resolve  had  thus  far  availed  nothing  to  con 
quer  it. 

She  looked  jaded,  rather  than  refreshed,  upon  her 
return,  although  she  had  curtailed  the  ride  in  opposi 
tion  to  Edward's  advice.  Wild,  rebellious  thoughts 

O 

fought  for  mastery  within  her  all  the  while  she  was 
with  him,  the  promptings  of  an  insane  familiar  she 
could  not  cast  out  "If  Iliad  met  him,  two  years 
ago,  instead  of  his  brother,  and  he  had  wooed  me,  the 
love  which  is  BOW  my  disgrace  would  have  been 
my  glory,"  she  was  tempted  to  repeat,  again  and 
again.  "  Yet  my  fitness  to  receive  his  affection  and  my 
need  of  him  are  the  same  to-day  as  they  were  then. 
Is  he  the  less  my  companion  soul,  the  mate  GOD  meant 
for  me,  because,  led  by  other's  counsels,  I  blundered 
into  a  loveless  connection  with  another!  Which  is 
the  criminal  bond — that  ordained  by  my  Maker,  or 
the  compact  which  has  had  no  blessing  save  the 
approval  of  cold-hearted  and  mercenary  mortals? 
Outwardly  we  must  remain  as  we  are ;  but  who  is 
defrauded  if  I  dream  of  what  might  have  been  ?  if  I 
love  him  for  what  he  is  in  himself,  not  for  what  he 
is  tome?" 

Then,  shaking  off  the  spell,  she  would  loathe  her 
self  for  the  vile  suggestions,  and  pray  in  a  blind,  hea 
thenish  way,  to  Him  who  had  sent  her  pain,  to  sus 
tain  her  under  it,  to  keep  her  from  falling  into  the 
fouler  mire  of  open  defiance  of  her  husband's  claims 


CHARYBDI8.  373 

upon  her  fealty  in  word  and  act,  to  hold  her  fast  to 
the  semblance  of  right  and  honor. 

Parting  from  Edward  at  the  outer  entrance  with  a 
brief  phrase  of  thanks  for  his  kindness  in  accompany 
ing  her,  she  ran  up  to  her  husband's  room  and  opened 
the  door  without  knocking.  A  gentleman,  whom  she 
recognized  as  a  prominent  city  lawyer,  stood  by  the 
lounge  with  a  paper  in  his  hand.  Two  young  men, 
apparently  clerks,  were  withdrawn  a  little  into  the 
background,  and  a  table  bearing  writing  materials 
was  between  them  and  the  others. 

"  You  acknowledge  this  instrument  to  be  your  will 
and  testament,  and  in  token  thereof,  have  setf  hereto 
your  signature  and  seal  ? "  the  lawyer  was  saying  as 
the  door  swung  noiselessly  ajar,  and  Constance  stop 
ped,  unable  to  advance  or  retreat. 

Mr.  Withers  glanced  around  when  he  had  given 
assent.  "  Come  in,  my  dear,"  he  said,  quietly.  "We 
shall  soon  be  through  this  little  matter." 

She  dropped  into  a  chair  near  the  door,  her  heart 
palpitating  with  force  that  beat  every  drop  of  blood 
from  her  cheeks.  Some  sudden  and  awful  change 
must  have  taken  place  while  she  was  out,  to  call  for 
the  presence  of  these  men.  Her  frame  was  chill  as 
with  the  shadow  of  death,  but  the  one  overpowering 
thought  that  smote  her,  was  that  her  husband's  ap 
proaching  decease  was  the  direct  answer  of  an  angry 
Judge  to  her  wicked  outcry  against  her  fate  and  long 
ings  to  escape  it.  In  this  grisly  shape  was  the  free 
dom  to  appear  for  which  she  had  panted.  But  she 
knew  that  when  the  cage  was  torn  down  she  would 


374:  CUARYBDIS. 

feel  like  a  murderess.  She  never  forgot  the  short 
lived  horror  of  that  moment. 

Mr.  Withers  dismissed  his  visitors  when  the  wit 
nesses  had  affixed  their  names  to  the  will,  and  they 
bowed  themselves  out,  each  noting,  more  or  less  fur 
tively,  as  he  passed,  the  dilated  eyes  and  colorless 
face  of  the  wife,  aud  drawing  his  own  conclusions 
therefrom. 

She  got  up  and  walked  totteringly  forward  at  her 
husband's  gesture.  He  was  no  paler  than  when  she 
had  left  him,  and  smiled  more  easily  than  was  his  habit, 
when  he  noticed  the  signs  of  her  extreme  alarm. 

"  I  was  afraid  you  would  be  frightened  if  I  talked 
in  your  hearing  of  making  my  will,"  he  said,  encou 
ragingly.  "  To  avoid  this,  I  arranged  that  Mr.  Hall 
should  wait  upon  me  while  yon  were  driving.  He 
was  behind  his  time,  and  you  were  back  earlier  than 
I  anticipated.  I  regret  the  meeting  only  for  your 
sake.  Perhaps  it  is  as  well,  however,  that  I  should 
acquaint  you  with  some  of  the  provisions  of  the  in 
strument  you  saw  in  Mr.  Hall's  hand." 

"  Please  do  not !  I  cannot  bear  to  hear  or  speak 
of  it ! "  protested  Constance,  the  tears  starting  to  her 
eyes.  "  It  all  seems  so  dreadful ! " 

"It  will  not  hasten  my  death  one  hour."  Mr. 
"Withers  was  not  quite  ready  to  pass  over  without  re 
buke  an  absurd  superstition  he  considered  unworthy 
a  rational  being,  even  though  the  offender  was  -his 
wife.  "  You  should  know  this.  I  made  another  will 
two  years  since,  but  circumstances  have  led  me  to 
regard  it  as  injudicious,  if  not  unfair.  We  business 


CHARTBDIS.  375 

men  are  superior  to  the  dread  of  looking  forward  to 
the  one  certain  event  of  mortalit}^  We  calculate  the 
probable  eifect  of  our  demise,  as  we  do  other  changes 
in  the  mercantile  and  social  world.  By  the  terms  of 
this  will,  as  I  was  about  to  remark,  my  property,  with 
the  exception  of  a  legacy  to  Harriet  Field,  is  divided 
equally  between  yourself  and  Edward.  And  he  is 
appointed  sole  executor.  In  the  event  of  my  death 
he  will  be  your  nearest  connection  and  safest  adviser. 
I  wish  you  to  remember  this.  It  is  hardly  to  be  ex 
pected  that  you,  although  a  fair  judge  of  character, 
should  be  as  conversant  with  the  qualities  that  fit  him 
to  assume  these  responsibilities  as  I  am,  who  have  been 
his  business  partner  ever  since  he  was  twenty-one." 

He  was  astonished  that  his  wife,  instead  of  render 
ing  a  submissive  verbal  acquiescence  to  his  spoken  and 
written  decree,  began  to  weep  so  violently  as  to  hinder 
herself  from  listening  or  replying  to  his  speech.  She 
had  never  conducted  herself  in  this  irrational  fashion 
before  in  his  sight,  and  he  was  naturally  exceedingly 
perplexed.  Aware  that  any  attempt  to  soothe  her 
would  be  awkward  work  to  him,  he  lay  quiet  for  a 
minute,  hoping  the  .emotion  would  expend  itself  with 
out  his  interference.  Finally,  he  adjudged  it  to  be 
but  reasonable  that  she  should  set  the  bounds  of  her 
grief  at  a  point  somewhat  short  of  hysterics  or  con 
vulsions,  and  addressed  her  with  the  most  stringent 
appeal  he  could  think  of : — 

"  Really,  Constance,  your  agitation  is  exciting  me 
most  unpleasantly.  I  fear  I  shall  be  feverish  when 
the  doctor  calls,  if  this  sort  of  thing  is  kept  up." 


376   '  GHARYBDIS. 

He  did  not  mean  to  be  unkind  or  selfish.  He  be 
lieved  his  health  to  be  of  supreme  importance  in  her 
esteem,  and  that  the  recollection  of  this  would  set  her  to 
rights.  The  experiment  succeeded  to  a  charm.  The 
sobbing  flow  of  briny  drops  was  staunched  on  the 
instant. 

"  I  beg  your  pardon,"  stammered  Constance, 
straightening  herself  up.  "I  will  control  myself 
better  hereafter.  It  is  time  for  your  cordial.  May  I 
pour  it  out  for  you  2 " 

It  was  inevitable  that  the  confession  she  had  medi 
tated,  while  he  told  her  of  his  arrangements  for  her 
future,  betraying  with  a  child's  artlessness  the  perfect- 
ness  of  his  trust  in  his  brother  and  in  herself,  the  full 
outflow  of  penitence,  and  deprecation,  and  entreaty 
for  pardon,  of  which  the  tears  were  but  the  type  and 
premonition,  should  be  checked  by  the  querulous  re 
ference  to  his  personal  discomfort.  But  the  sudden 
and  disagreeable  reaction  induced  by  it  was  hardly 
an  excuse  for  the  hardening  of  her  heart  and  dulling 
of  the  sensibilities,  just  now  so  tender,  which  filled 
her  mind  with  sullen  resentment  against  him  who 
had  repelled  her  confidence.  "IJe-will  never  under 
stand  me.  "We  are  as  antagonistic  as  oil  and  water," 
she  excused  this  by  thinking.  "  The  more  closely  I 
imitate  his  icy  propriety  the  better  matched  we  shall 
be.  I  was  a  fool  to  imagine  anything  else."  And 
thus  slipped  by  the  fairest  chance  of  reconciliation 
and  real  union  that  was  ever  ofiered  the  ill-assorted 
pair. 

With  Mr.  Withers'  returning  strength  everything 


CHARYBDIS.  377 

seemed  to  fall  back  into  the  old  train.  Except  that 
invitations  were  less  frequent  as  the  season  waned, 
and  that  Edward  and  Constance  passed  fewer  evenings 
abroad  and  more  at  home,  that  Mr.  Withers  rode  to 
his  office  every  morning  and  returned  at  noon,  to 
spend  the  rest  of  the  day  upon  the  sofa  in  the  library, 
exchanging  this  after  dinner  for  an  easy-chair  in  the 
parlor,  the  mode  of  life  in  the  household  varied  in  no 
important  respect  from  what  it  had  been  prior  to  his 
accident. 

It  was  early  in  March  when  Constance  perceived, 
or  fancied  she  perceived,  a  marked  alteration  in  the 
demeanor  of  her  brother-in-law.  He  was  not  less 
kind,  and  his  fraternal  attentions  were  rendered  freely 
and .  cordially  as  ever,  but  he  was  less  gay,  and  was 
addicted  to  fits  of  abstraction,  profound,  although  ap 
parently  not  sad,  while  his  absence  from  the  family 
circle,  without  apology,  became  so  common  that  it 
ceased  to  provoke  Harriet's  frivolous  wonder,  and  to 
disappoint  Mr.  "Withers.  Constance  had  never  com 
plained  of  or  remarked  upon  this.  But  her  mind  was 
tossed  night  and  day  upon  a  tumultuous  tide  of  con 
jectures,  she  would  fain  have  termed  apprehensions, 
rather  than  hopes.  Up  to  this  date  she  had  beiieved 
her  love  and  her  misery  to  be  unshared  and  unsus 
pected  by  him ;  had  reiterated,  in  her  flimsy  self-de 
ception,  thanksgivings  choked  by  tears  that  she  was 
the  only  sufferer  from  her  wretched  folly.  Did  she 
grow  suddenly  cruel  and  base  in  the  moment  when 
the  thought  that  the  error  was  mutual  awoke  rap 
tures,  the  remembrance  of  the  suffering  he  must  also 


378  CHARTBDIS. 

taste  had  not  power  to  still?  Was  the  salve  to  her 
self-respect  supplied  bj  the  discovery  that  her  di 
vinity  was  a  fallible  man,  impotent  to  resist  the 
subtle  temptation  that  had  overcome  her  prudence 
and  sense  of  right,  worth  the  price  paid  for  it  ?  A 
new  terror,  more  sweet  than  any  joy  she  had  ever 
known,  soon  laid  hold  of  her.  It  was  idle  to  ignore 
the  fact  that  Ed  ward  furtively,  but  persistently,  sought 
a  private  interview  with  her.  She  might  disregard 
his  beseeching  glances,  affect  to  misunderstand  his 
signals  and  his  uttered  hints,  might  seek,  in  constant 
ministrations  to  her  husband's  wants  and  whims,  to 
guard  herself,  and  to  forget  these  omens  of  a  uearing 
crisis.  But  she  comprehended  his  designs ;  marked 
with  a  thrill,  that  was  the  opposite  of  pain,  his  chagrin 
at  his  failure,  and  the  augmented  restlessness  of  his 
mien,  betokening  perplexity  and  desire.  What  was 
to  be  the  end  of  this  pursuit,  and  her  evasion  of  it, 
when  her  own  heart  was  the  tempter's  strongest  ally  ? 
She  dared  not  hear  him  say  that  she  was  dear  to  him 
as  he  had  long  been  to  her.  Knowing,  as  she  did, 
that  she  ought  to  spurn  him  from  her  at  the  remotest 
approach  to  this  theme,  she  was  never  able  to  say 
with  an  honest  purpose  that  she  was  likely  to  do  it. 
If  she  doubted  his  intentions,  she  doubted  herself  yet 
more. 

It  was  by  no  connivance  of  hers  that  he  gained  his 
point.  She  was  taking  her  usual  afternoon  drive  one 
day  alone,  when  she  was  aroused  from  a  reverie  by 
the  slower  motion  of  the  carriage,  to  observe  that  the 
coachman  had  turned  into  a  business  thoroughfare 


CHARTBDI8.  379 

instead  of  taking  the  most  direct  route  homeward. 
"  John,"  she  called,  through  the  front  window,  "  where 
are  you  going  ?  What  brought  you  here  ? " 

"  Mr.  Edward  told  me  to  call  for  him  at  four  o'clock, 
ma'am.  I  thought  he  had  spoken  to  you  about  it,"  was 
the  respectful  rejoinder. 

There  was  no  immediate  reply,  and  he  checked  his 
horses  to  inquire :  "  Will  I  go  back,  ma'am  ? " 

"  No  ;  go  on." 

She  threw  herself  upon  the  back  seat  again,  with 
throbbing  pulses  an4  a  feeling  that  she  had  spoken 
the  sentence  which  was  to  decide  her  fate  for  time 
and  for  eternity.  "Heaven  help  me  to  stand  fast!" 
the  tongue  essayed  to  say,  the  while  the  heart  was 
melting  into  tenderness,  arid  vibrating  with  expecta 
tion. 

It  lacked  ten  minutes  of  the  appointed  hour  when 
they  reached  the  office,  but  Edward  stood  upon  the 
door-step,  hat  and  gloves  on. 

"  It  is  good  in  you  to  submit  so  quietly  to  my 
meddling,"  he  began,  by  the  time  he  was  seated. 
"  But  I  have  something  to  say  to  you,  a  story  to  tell 
which  I  can  keep  no  longer.  Yoii  must  have  seen, 
although  you  have  seemed  not  to  do  so,  how  I  have 
dogged  your  steps  for  some  weeks  past,  in  the  hope 
of  stealing  an  opportunity  for  confession.  I  have 
sometimes  ventured  to  believe  that  your  woman's 
wit  and  woman's  heart  had  penetrated  my  secret; 
that  what  entered  so  largely  into  my  thoughts  and 
motives,  made  up  so  much  of  my  life,  could  not  re 
main  hidden  from  your  eyes.  I  wanted  to  tell  you 


380  CHARYBDIS. 

of  it  long  ago,  dear  Cormie,  but  the  recollection  of 
what  was  due  to  another  withheld  me,  while  I  was 
yet  uncertain  that  my  love  was  returned.  I  had  so 
little  reason  for  hope,  although  hope  has  never  flag 
ged — mine  is  a  sanguine  nature,  you  know — that  I 
hesitated  to  speak  openly.  Now  that  I  can  feel  firm 
ground  under  my  feet,  my  happiness  is  mixed  with 
much  alloy.  I  must  either  take  from  one  who  is  a 
hopeless  invalid  the  ablest  and  most  lovely  nurse  that 
ever  man  had ;  condemn  him,  whose  claim  the  world 
would  declare  to  be  superior  to  mine,  to  loneliness 
and  sorrow,  or  consent  to  a  season  of  dreary  waiting 
before  I  can  call  my  darling  my  own.  Do  you 
wonder  that  thoughts  Such  as  these  have  preyed 
upon  my  spirits;  racked  me  with  anxiety,  even  in 
the  blessed  hour  of  assurance  that  my  devotion  was 
not  wasted  ? " 

His  rapid  articulation  had  given  Constance  no  time 
for  reply,  but  her  excitement  equalled  his,  as  she  bent 
her  veiled  face  upon  her  hands,  and  listened,  in  dumb 
alarm  at  the  emotions  rising  to  meet  his  avowal  of 
love  and  longing.  To  her,  what  would  have  sounded 
incoherent  to  a  third  person,  was  explicit  and  fervent. 
He  knew  her  as  his  mate,  and  would  not  give  her  up ; 
asserted  his  rights  with  a  master's  authority,  while 
his  heart  ached  at  thought  of  the  woe  in  store  for  her 
nominal  possessor. 

"  I  have  startled  you  by  my  vehemence,"  he  con 
tinued,  taking  the  hand  that  lay  upon  her  lap.  "  I 
feared  lest  this  announcement  might  seem  abrupt, 
but  the  steamer  sails  at  five  o'clock,  and  I  last  night 


CHjLRYBDIS.  381 

obtained  Evelyn's  permission  to  bring  you  to  see  her 
off.  She  owes  you  a  debt  of  gratitude  for  your 
sisterly  care  of  my  lonely  and  graceless  self.  She 
loves  you  dearly  already,  as  you  will  her  when  you 
have  had  one  glimpse  of  her  face.  You  reminded  me 
of  her  the  first  day  of  our  meeting.  I  had  travelled 
with  her  and  her  sick  father  for  three  months,  and  at 
parting  more  than  hinted  at  my  attachment.  "With 
candor  that  would  have  driven  me  to  desperation, 
had  it  been  less  mournful,  she  declared  her  intention 
not  to  marry  while  her  father  lived.  '  He  needs  my 
constant  care,'  she  said.  '  Without  it  he  would  die 
in  a  week.  He  will  never  be  better.  The  kindest 
service  you  can  do  me,  as  the  wisest  you  can  do  your 
self,  is  to  forget  me.'  I  have  been  steadily  dis 
obedient  to  her  advice.  I  told  her  as  much  when  I 
found  out  by  chance  two  months  ago  that  she  was  in 
the  city.  -  She  was  very  resolute,  for  a  time,  often 
refusing  to  see  me  when  I  called,  and  again  begging 
me,  even  with  tears,  to  dismiss  all  idea  of  making  her 
my  wife.  It  is  now  a  fortnight  since  her  father  un 
expectedly  announced  his  determination  to  return  to 
Europe,  and,  in  the  anticipation  of  our  second  part 
ing,  she  acknowledged  that  my  love  was  returned. 
Our  engagement  would  be  an  unsatisfactory  one  to 
most  people,  but  she  is  the  earthly  impersonation  of 
the  angel  of  patience,  and  I  can  surely  wait  a  few 
months,  or  even  years,  for  a  gift  so  precidus.  Her 
father  is  afflicted  by  a  complication  of  disorders,  the 
most  serious  being  an  organic  affection  of  the  heart. 
She  is  his  only  living  child.  It  would  be  sheer  bur- 


382  CHAETBDIS. 

barity  to  separate  them,  and  with  an  invalid's  obsti 
nacy  he  will  not  hear  of  taking  up  his  abode  in  his 
daughter's  house,  should  she  marry.  My  poor  Eve 
lyn,  my  gentle  love !  She  is  a  martyr,  and  I  can  do 
so  little  to  lighten  her  burden !  " 

"  It  is  very  hard."  He  had  paused,  and  Constance 
must  speak. 

Too  preoccupied  by  his  own  reflections  to  note  her 
thick  articulation  and  studiously  averted  face,  Ed 
ward  took  up  the  word  warmly.  "Hard!  What 
could  be  harder  for  both  of  us  ? " 

She  interrupted  him  by  an  impetuous  gesture. 
"  You  are  talking  wildly — wickedly !  Think  what 
you.  would  suffer  if  you  loved  without  hope  of  re 
quital." 

He  absolutely  laughed.  "As  if  that  could  be. 
Affection,  full  and  fervent  as  mine,  holds  a  witch- 
hazel  that  never  errs  in  pointing  to  the  fount  of 
answering  love.  Why,  Connie,  we  were  made  for 
one  another — Eva  and  I !  " 

Was  no  scalding  drop  of  bitterness  to  be  spared 
from  her  cup  ?  Whose  then  was  the  fatal  mistake 
which  had  opened  the  sluices  of  that  other  fountain, 
that  was  drowning  her:  soul  with  cruel  humiliation 
and  anguish  ? 

"  Drive  as  near  to  the  steamer  as  you  can,  John  !  " 
called  Edward,  from  his  window,  and  in  the  appreci 
ation  of  the  truth  that  the  sharpest  ordeal  was  yet 
before  her,  and  fearfully  near  at  hand,  Constance 
submitted  to  be  handed  from  the  carriage  to  the 
wharf. 


CHART BDIS.  383 

Through  a  bewildering  haze  she  saw  the  noisy 
crowd,  the  smoke-stack  of  the  monstrous  vessel,  stum 
bled  along  the  gangway  connecting  it  with  the  shore, 
yielding  passively  to  the  impetus  of  Edward's  arm, 
and  regained  sight,  hearing,  and  consciousness  of 
pain  when  she  stood  in  a  handsome  saloon,  a  small 
hand,  warm  as  hers  was  icy,  fluttering  in  her  grasp, 
and  a  pair  of  dark,  thoughtful  eyes  fixed  upon  her 
face. 

"  You  were  very  good  to  come,"  said  a  low  voice, 
fraught  with  emotion,  yet  steady.  "  Allow  me  to 
present  my  father,  Mr.  Pynsent.  Mrs.  Withers,  fa 
ther." 

She  looked  and  spoke  the  lady,  and  her  father 
arose  from  his  divan,  supporting  himself  upon  a  cane, 
and  saluted  Mrs.  "Withers  with  stately  politeness. 
Both  were  high  bred,  but  it  was  not  Evelyn's  beauty 
that  had  won  her  lover.  Her  eyes  and  mouth  were 
her  only  really  good  features.  Constance  knew  her 
self  to  be  the  handsomer  of  the  two,  but  the  persua 
sion  added  to  the  hopelessness  of  her  ill-fated  love. 
The  qualities  that  had  knit  to  this  girl's  heart  that 
of  the  man  who  had  seen  the  beauties  of  two  hemi 
spheres,  which  had  kept  him  true  to  her,  and  her 
alone,  though  opposed  by  absence,  discouragement, 
and  the  wiles  of  scores  of  other  women,  lay  beyond 
her  power  of  analysis  and  counter-charms.  'She  be 
gan  to  understand  how  it  had  come  to  pass,  when  she 
had  commanded  her  wits  so  far  as  to  talk  five  minutes 
with  Edward's  betrothed  ;  owned,  reluctantly,  that 
had  she  met  her,  as  new  acquaintances  generally 


384  CHARTBDIS. 

meet,  she  would  have  been  irresistibly  attracted  by 
her  \vinning  ladyhood,  and  the  countenance  that 
united  so  much  sweetness  with  sense  and  spirit. 

There  was  time  now  for  little  beyond  the  kindly 
commonplaces  suitable  to  their  meeting  in  a  public 
place  and  their  prospective  parting,  and  even  these 
Constance  abridged  ostensibly,  and  the  others  deem 
ed  considerately,  that  the  last  precious  moments  with 
his  affianced  might  be  all  Edward's.  Without  verbal 

o 

pretext,  she  arose  from  her  place  beside  Evelyn,  and 
passed  around  to  Mr.  Pynsent's  side,  engaging  him 
in  conversation  about  his  voyage  and  destination. 
The  atmosphere  was  a  degree  less  stifling  there.  If 
she  moved,  smiled,  and  talked  mechanically,  it  mat 
tered  nothing  now  that  the  penetrating  eyes  she  most 
dreaded  never  left  their  resting-place  upon  the  visage 
of  which  they  were  taking  a  long  farewell.  There 
was  little  to  be  apprehended  from  the  sick  man's 
restless  regards,  which  wandered  incessantly  from 
her  to  the  betrothed  couple,  his  gray  eyebrows  con 
tracting  with  pain  or  mental  disquiet  as  he  did  so. 
Had  Evelyn  been  free  to  maintain  her  usual  watch 
upon  him,  she  would  have  taken  alarm  at  these  in 
creasing  symptoms  of  distress,  and  the  livid  hue  set 
tling  upon  his  complexion.  Constance  did  not  notice 
these,  until,  simultaneously  with  the  clanging  of  a 
bell  overhead,  and  the  rapid  rush  of  feet  toward  the 
shore,  he  threw  both  hands  outward,  with  the  aim 
less  clutch  of  a  sightless  man,  and  fell  against  her  as 
she  sat  by  him  on  the  sofa. 

The  utmost  confusion  reigned  in  the  saloon'  for  a 


CHARTBDIS.  385 

few  moments — exclamations,  inquiries,  and  orders — 
loud,  varied,  and  useless.  Then  Edward's  strong 
voice  recommended,  in  stringent  terms,  that  the  room 
be  cleared  of  all  except  the  immediate  attendants  of 
the  sufferer,  including  "a  gentleman  who  had  intro 
duced  himself  as  a  physician.  'The  spasm  passed 
into  a  swoon,  so  deathly  and  protracted,  that  Con 
stance  was  readj"  to  believe  the  patient  beyond  the 
reach  of  earthly-said,  notwithstanding  the  doctor's  as 
sertion  that  he  would  probably  revive,  and  even 
Evelyn  murmured  once  when  Edward  would  have 
confirmed  the  cheering  assurance :  "  It  may  be.  I 
hope  so  ;  but  I  never  saw  him  quite  so  ill  before." 

Finally  life  fought  its  way  back,  inch  by  inch,  to 
the  worn  heart ;  the  fingers  relaxed  from  their  rigid 
clinch,  the  lips  were  less  purple,  and  the  eyes  were 
unclosed  feebly  upon  the  anxious  group.  When  he 
could  move,  Edward  and  the  physician  supported 
him  to  his  state-room,  followed  by  Evelyn.  Con 
stance,  left  to  herself,  had  leisure  to  observe  what  had 
not  until  now  drawn  her  attention.  The  bustle  of 
embarkation  had  ceased,  but  through  the  almost  de 
serted  saloon  sounded  the  measured  throb  of  the  pow 
erful  engines,  as  they  urged  the  boat  through  the 
water.  She  threw  open  a  window  and  looked  out. 
They  were  already  far  dpwn  the  bay,  the  spires  of 
the  city  lessening  in  the  distance,  and  the-vessel  un 
der  full  headway.  She  met  Edward  at  the  state-room 
door  with  the  startling  intelligence.  For  an  instant 
he  looked  as  aghast  as  herself,  then  recovered  his 
self-possession  with  a  smile.  She  must  compose  her- 
17 


386  CHARTBDIS. 

self  and  trust  him  to  extricate  them  both  from  the 
predicament  in  which  his  thoughtlessness  had  placed 
them.  The  worst  that  could  befall  them  was  a  few 
hours'  delay  in  returning  home.  lie  would  see  the 
captain  forthwith,  and  request  him  to  signal  the  first 
homeward  bound  pilot-boat,  or  other  vessel  they 
might  espy. 

Constance  did  as  he  bade  her ;  resumed  her  seat, 
and  seemed  to  await  the  result  of  the" affair  patiently. 
"I  am  afraid  your  brother  may  be  alarmed  at  our 
continued  absence,"  was  her  only  remark. 

"  He  will  understand  at  once  what  has  happened, 
when  John  goes  home  with  the  news  that  he  drove 
us  down  to  see  the  steamer  off,"  replied  Edward, 
confidently.  "  We  shall  have  a  merry  laugh  to-mor 
row  at  breakfast  over  our  adventure.  So  long  as  you 
are  not  unhappy  or  angry  with  me,  I  am  comfortable 
on  the  score  of  Elnathan's  displeasure." 


CHAPTER  V. 

ILL  you  have  the  kindness  to  ring  that 
bell  again,  Harriet,  and  inquire  whether 
Mrs.  Withers  has  returned  ? "  fretted  the 
convalescent.  "  It  is  after  six  o'clock,  and 
I  am  faint  for  want  of  nourishment." 
The  duteous  dependent  obeyed,  then  slipped  from 
the  room  to  push  investigations  upon  a  plan  of  her 
own.  In  a  quarter  of  an  hour  she  reappeared  with 
an  agitated,  yet  important  countenance,  that  arrested 
her  cousin's  regards. 

"  What  is  it  ?  Where  is  she  ?  "  he  demanded,  im 
patiently.  "  You  hare  heard  something.  Tell  me. 
at  once  what  it  is  !  " 

Harriet  collapsed  as  gracefully  as  her  unpliant 
sinews  and  stays  would  allow,  into  a  kneeling  heap 
upon  the  floor  at  his  feet.  "  My  beloved  cousin !  My 
dear  deceived  angel !  I  have  heard  nothing  that  sur 
prised  me.  I  dared  not  speak  of  it  to  you  before 
now,  agonizing  as  was  my  solicitude.  You  would 
have  driven  me  from  you  in  anger  had  I  whispered  a 


388  CUARYDDIS. 

word  of  what  has  been  the  town  gossip  for  months, 
to  which  you  only  were  blinded  by  your  noble,  your 
generous,  your  superhuman  confidence  in  your  be 
trayers.  I  see  that  you  are  partially  prepared  for  the 
blow,"  as  he  grew  pale  and  tried  without  success  to 
interrupt  her.  "  Brace  yourself  for  what  you  must 
know,  my  poor,  ill-used  darling !  Your  brother  and 
your  wife  have  eloped  to  Europe  in  company !  " 

For  one  second  the  husband  staggered  under  the 
shock.  His  eyes  closed  suddenly,  as  at  a  flash  of 
lightning,  and  his  features  were  distorted,  as  in  a 
wrench  of  mortal  pain.  Then  all  that  was  true  and 
dignified  in  the  man  rallied  to  repel  the  insult  to  the 
two  he  had  trusted  and  loved.  "  I  do  not  believe  it," 
he  said,  distinctly  and  with  deliberate  emphasis. 
"  You  are  the  dupe  of  some  mischievous  slanderer, 
my  good  woinan.  Edward  Withers  is  the  soul  of 
integrity,  and  my  wife's  virtue  is  incorruptible.  Who 
told  you  this  absurd  tale  ?  " 

"  Mrs.  Withers  stated  to  you  that  she  was  going  to 
drive  alone  this  afternoon,  did  she  not?"  Harriet 
Forgot  the  pathetic  in  malicious  triumph,  as  she  pro 
ceeded  to  prove  her  rival's  guilt. 

"  You  heard  her  say  it,"  laconically,  and  still  on 
the  defensive. 

"  Yet  John  says  she  called  by  the  office  to  take  up 
Mr.  Edward  Withers,  and  thai  they  drove  in  com 
pany  to  the  wharf,  where  lay  an  ocean  steamer.  He 
saw  them  go  on  board,  arm  in  arm,  and,  although  he 
waited  on  the  pier  as  long  as  the  vessel  was  in  sight, 
they  did  not  return." 


CI1ARTBDIS.  389 

"I  will  see  the  man  myself."  Crossing  the  room 
with  a  firmer  step  than  had  been  his  since  his  illuessr 
Mr.  Withers  rang  the  bell  and  summoned  the  coach 
man.  His  evidence  tallied  exactly  with  Harriet's  re 
port,  and  she  flattered  herself  that  the  inquisitor's 
manner  was  a  shade  less  confident  when  the  witness 
was  dismissed.  "  You  have  said  that  this  disappear 
ance  was  not  a  matter  of  surprise  to  you,  and  added 
something  about  vulgar  gossip.  I  wish  a  full  ex 
planation,"  he  said,  still  magisterially. 

Thus  bidden,  Harriet  told  her  tale.  Before  their 
return  to  the  city  in  the  autumn,  she  had  seasons  of 
anxiety  relative  to  the  intimacy  between  Mr.  Edward 
AVithers  and  his  beautiful  sister-in-law.  Not,  the 
unsuspecting  virgin  was  careful  to  affirm,  that  she 
doubted  then  the  good  faith  and  right  intentions  of 
either,  but  she  feared  lest  Mrs.  Withers'  partiality  for 
the  younger  brother  might  render  her  negligent  of 
her  husband's  happiness  and  comfort.  The  winter's 
festivities  had  brought  the  two  into  a  peculiarly  un 
fortunate  position  for  the  growth  of  domestic  virtues, 
and  eminently  conducive  to  the  progress  of  the  fatal 
attachment  which  was  now  beyond  the  possibility  of 
a  doubt.  Although  one  of  the  family,  and  known  to 
be  wedded  to  their  interests,  she  had  not  been  able  to 
deter  busy-bodies  from  sly  and  overt  mention  of  the 
scandal  in  her  hearing.  She  had,  on  such  occasions, 
taken  the  liberty  of  rebuking  the  offender,  and  main 
taining,  in  her  humble  way,  the  honor  of  her  bene 
factors  name.  But  she  could  not  silence  a  city  full 
of  tongues,  and  they  had  wagged  fast  and  loudly  of 


390  CHARYBDIS. 

the  husband's  indiscreet  confidence  in  the  guilty  par 
ties,  and  their  shameless  treachery. 

He  checked  her  when  she  would  have  dilated  upon 
this  division  of  her  subject.  "I  will  have  no  hearsay 
evidence.  What  have  you  seen  f  " 

Harriet  demurred,  blushingly,  not,  as  it  presently 
appeared,  because  she  had  seen  so  little,  but  so  much. 
Duets,  vocal  and  instrumental,  had  been  the  vehicles 
of  loving  intercourse — hand-squeezing,  meaning  sighs 
and  whispers.  Her  blood  had  often  boiled  furiously 
in  beholding  the  outrageous  manoeuvres  practised  in 
the  very  eight  of  their  trusting  victim.  Her  eyes,  in 
passing  from  their  smiles  of  evil  import,  their  lan- 
guishings  and  caresses  to  the  serene  face  bent  over 
the  chess-board,  or  wrapt  in  innocent  slumber,  had 
alternately  overflowed  with  tears  and  glowed  with 
indignation. 

"  But  all  this  was  as  nothing  compared  with  my 
sensations  on  the  morning  of  the  day  in  which  you 
made  your  will.  Chancing  to  enter  your  dressing- 
room,  on  my  way  to  your  bedside,  I  surprised  Mrs. 
Withers  and  Mr.  Edward  Withers  standing  together, 
her  head  upon  his  bosom,  his  arms  upholding  her, 
while  he  whispered  loving  words  in  her  ear.  He 
kissed  her  at  the  very  moment  of  my  silent  entrance, 
with  this  remark — '  We  have  too  much  to  live  and  to 
hope  for,  to  nurse  unhealthy  surmises  and  fears.'  I 
could  testify  to  the  language  in  a  court  of  justice,  and 
am  positive  that  his  reference  was  to  your  possible 
recovery." 

"  No  more  ! "     The  mischief-maker  was  scared  out 


CHARTBD1S.  391 

of  her  gloomy  exultation  by  the  altered  face  turned 
toward  her.  "  Please  excuse  me  from  going  down  to 
dinner  to-day.  I  am  very  weary,  and  shall  spend 
the  evening  alone,"  pursued  Mr.  Withers,  with  a 
pitiful  show  of  his  old  and  pompous  style.  He  arose, 
as  a  further  signal  that  she  must  go,  when  she  threw 
herself  before  him  and  clasped  his  knees. 

"  Elnathan  ! "  the  beady  eyes  strained  in  excruciat 
ing  appeal,  "  do  not  banish  me  from  you  in  this  your 
extremity !  Who — who  should  be  near  you  to  sus 
tain  and  weep  with  you,  but  your  poor  devoted 
Harriet — she  whose  life  has  but  one  end— the  hope 
that  she  may  serve  and  aid  you ;  but  one  reward, 
your  smile,  and  so  much  of  your  love  as  you  may  see 
fit  to  bestow  upon  so  worthless  an  object  ? " 

But  in  the  honest  sorrow  that  bowed  the  listener's 
proud  spirit  to  breaking,  her  factitious  transports 
met  no  response  beyond  weary  impatience.  The  ca 
jolery  that  had  flattered  the  unworthy  complacency 
of  his  prosperous  days  rang  discordantly  upon  his 
present  mood.  He  wanted  pity  from  no  one,  he  said 
to  himself,  and,  in  his  rejection  of  hers,  there  was  a 
touch  of  resentment,  the  consequence  of  her  unsparing 
denunciation  of  Constance.  He  might  come  to  hate 
her  himself,  soon.  Just  now  he  almost  abhorred  the 
one  who  had  opened  his  eyes  to  his  own  shame. 
"  You  mean  well,  I  dare  say,  Harriet,"  he  said,  in 
his  harshest  tone,  "but  you  are  injudicious,  and  your 
offers  of  sympathy  are  unwelcome.  I  am  sure  that  I 
shall  shortly  receive  a  satisfactory  explanation  of  this 
mysterious  affair.  As  to  your  gossiping  friends,  I 


392  CHARYBDIS. 

can  only  regret  that  your  associates  Lave  not  been 
chosen  more  wisely.  Now  you  can  go." 

She  made  no  further  resistance,  but  here  was  one 
of  the  chamber-doors  that  unclosed  stealthily  when, 
at  midnight,  the  rattle  of  a  latch-key  sounded 
through  the  front  hall,  and  was  followed  by  the  en 
trance  of  the  two  supposed  voyagers.  There  were 
more  wakeful  eyes  under  that  roof  that  night  than 
the  master  recked  of,  and  a  bevy  of  curious  gazers 
peered  from  the  obscurity  of  the  third  story  into  the 
entry,  where  Mr.  Withers  had  ordered  the  gas  to  be 
kept  burning  all  night. 

"You  see  we  are  expected,"  said  Edward,  to  his 
companion. 

Mr.  Withers  met  them  at  the  head  of  the  stair 
case,  clad  in  dressing-gown  and  slippers.  "  Ah  !  here 
you  are.  How  did  you  get  back  ? " 

"  The  obliging  captain  hailed  a  fishing  yacht,  and 
put  us  on  board,"  answered  his  brother.  "  Have  you 
been  uneasy  about  us  ? " 

"  Only  lest  you  might  be  carried  some  distance  out 
before  you  fell  in  with  a  returning  vessel.  You  look 
very  tired,  Constance.  I  shall  not  let  her  go  with 
you  again,  Edward,  unless  you  promise  to  take  better 
care  of  her." 

"  Tell  him  just  how  it  happened,  Connie,"  laughed 
Edward,  and  the  conference  was  over. 

"  They  played  their  parts  well  all  of  them,"  mut 
tered  Harriet,  stealing  back  to  her  sleepless  pillow. 
"  But  they  need  not  hope  to  gag  people  now  that  the 
scandal  has  taken  wind ;  '  murder  will  out.' " 


CHARYBDIS.  393 

Her  sagacity  was  proved  by  the  appearance  in  the 
next  day's  issue  of  an  extensively  circulated  journal 
of  a  conspicuous  article,  headed  "Scandal  in  high 
life!"  setting  forth  the  elopement,  per  steamer  to 
Europe,  of  the  junior  partner  in  a  well-known  bank 
ing  house  with  the  beautiful  wife  of  his  brother,  the 
senior  partner  of  the  aforesaid  firm.  The  intimacy 
of  the  fugitives,  the  chronicle  went  on  to  say,  had 
been  much  talked  of  all  winter. in  the  brilliant  circle 
to  which  they  belonged.  The  deserted  husband  was 
a  citizen  whom  all  delighted  to  honor  for  his  busi 
ness  talents,  his  probity  in  public  life,  and  his  pri 
vate  virtues.  "  This  affliction  falls  upon  him  with  the 
more  crushing  severity  from  the  circumstance  that 
he  has  been  for  some  months  an  invalid.  He  has  the 
sincere  sympathy  of  the  entire  community." 

The  editor  of  the  humane  sheet,  albeit  not  unused 
to  eating  his  own  words,  never  penned  a  more  hum 
ble  and  explicit  retraction  of  "  the  unlucky  error 
into  which,  through  no  fault  of  ours,  we  have  fallen," 
than  graced  his  columns  the  following  morning.  He 
could  hardly  have  expressed  himself  more  forcibly 
had  Edward  Withers  really  horsewhipped  him,  in 
stead  of  .threatening  to  do  it,  and  to  bring  an  action 
for  libel  as  well. 

Constance  breakfasted  in  bed,  at  her  husband's 
request,  on  the  day  succeeding  the  Pynsents'  depart 
ure.  The  popular  daily,  above  referred  to,  lay  as 
usual  by  Mr.  "Withers'  plate  when  he  went  down 
stairs,  folded  with  what  was  known  to  its  constant 
readers  as  the  naughty  corner  outermost.  Harriet 


394  CHARYBDIS. 

was  engaged  in  concocting  ber  cousin's  cup  of  foam 
ing  chocolate  when  he  opened  the  sheet,  but  she 
both  saw  and  heard  the  paper  rustle  like  a  poplar 
bough  before  a  storm,  then  grow  suddenly,  unnatur 
ally  still.  "When  Mr.  Withers  lowered  it  there  was 
nothing  in  voice  or  expression  to  betray  to  his 
brother  that  aught  was  amiss.  "When  the  meal  was 
over  he  repaired  to  his  wife's  room,  taking  with  him 
the  newspaper  which  he  had  not,  as  was  his  custom, 
offered  to  pass  to  Edward. 

"Without  a  word  he  spread  it  before  the  pale  \vo- 
maa  whose  haggard  countenance  should  have  moved 
him  to  delay  her  accusation  and  sentence.  One 
swift  glance  took  in  the  import  of  the  cruel  article, 
and  she  buried  her  face  in  the  pillow  with  a  cry  that 
destroyed  what  faint  remnant  of  hope  might  have  lin 
gered  in  his  bosom.  "  My  sin  has  found  me  out ! " 

A  heavy  hand  was  laid  upon  her  arm.  "  This  is 
childish,  Constance,  and  you  have  showed  yourself  to 
be  no  child  in  craft.  Nothing  short  of  your  own  con 
fession  would  have  persuaded  me  that  much  contained 
in  this  paragraph  is  true  ;  that  you  have  abused  my 
confidence,  sullied  my  name,  and  made  me  the  object 
of  universal  contempt — you  and — and — my  brother! " 

Constance  looked  up  eagerly.  "  He  has  done  no 
thing,  has  said  nothing  inconsistent  with  honor  and 
what  he  owes  you.  The  weakness  is  all  mine ;  the 
folly,  the  madness,  and  the  suffering.  He  never 
thought  of  me  except  as  a  sister.  Surely  his  engage 
ment  proves  this." 

"  "What  should  your  marriage  have  proved  ? "  asked 


CUARTBDIS.  395 

her  husband,  sarcastically.  "  It  may  be  as  you  say. 
If  I  believe  it,  it  is  not  because  you  swear  it  is  the 
truth.  But  I  did  not  come  here  to  waste  time  in  re 
proaches.  There  is  but  one  way  to  put  this  scandal 
down ;  namely,  to  conduct  ourselves  as  if  we  had 
never  heard  it.  Of  course,  as  soon  as  can  be  done 
without  exciting  remark,  Edward  must  seek  another 
home.  Our  removal  to  the  country  will  afford  a  con 
venient  opportunity  for  effecting  this  change.  As  to 
your  reputation,  I  charge  myself  with  the  care  of  it 
from  this  hour.  My  error  has  been  undue  indul 
gence." 

Constance  lifted  her  leaden  eyes  with  a  look  of 
utter  wretchedness.  "  If  you  would  but  suffer  me  to 
go  away  and  hide  myself  from  all  who  know  my  mis 
erable  story,  I  would  ask  nothing  else  at  your  hands. 
You  would  the  sooner  forget  the  unhappiness  brought 
upon  you  by  the  sad  farce  of  marriage  in  which  we 
have  been  actors." 

"  On  my  part  it  has  been  no  farce,"  replied  the 
stern,  metallic  voice.  "  I  have  conscientiously  ful 
filled  the  duties  made  obligatory  upon  me  by  our  con 
tract.  You  entered  into  this  voluntarily.  For  what 
you  have  termed  your  folly,  you  have  only  yourself 
to  blame.  You  seem  to  have  been  tempted  to  your 
unhappy  passion  by  an  inherent  love  of  wrong-doing. 
As  to  your  proposal  of  flight  and  concealment,  it  is 
simply  absurd.  In  the  first  place,  you  leave  out  of 
view  the  fact  that  my  fair  name  would  be  tarnished 
by  an  open  separation — the  infamy  you  would  hide  be 
laid  bare  to  the  general  gaze.  Secondly,  you  have 


396  CHARTBD1S. 

no  decent  place  of  refuge.  I  know  your  brother 
sufficiently  well  to  affirm  that  his  doors  would  be 
closed  against  you  were  you  to  apply  to  him  for  shel 
ter  as  a  repudiated  wife.  And  you  have  no  private 
fortune.  I  shall  never  again  of  my  own  accord  al 
lude  to  this  disagreeable  subject.  "We  understand 
each  other  and  our  mutual  position." 

He  kept  his  word  to  the  letter.  But  henceforward 
his  every  action  and  look,  when  she  was  by,  reminded 
her  she  was  in  bonds,  and  he  her  jailer.  Too  broken- 
spirited  to  resist  his  will,  or  to  cavil  at  the  demands 
made  upon  her  time  and  self-denial  by  his  cold  ira- 
periousness,  she  marched  at  his  chariot  wheel,  a  slave 
in  queenly  attire,  whose  dreams  were  no  more  of  free 
dom,  to  whom  love  meant  remorse,  and  marriage 
pollution,  the  more  hopeless  and  hateful  that  the  law 
and  the  Gospel  pronounced  it  honorable  in  all. 


THE    END. 


UCLA-Young  Research  Library 

PS3007  .P52 

y 


L  009  534  974  2 


UC  SOUTHERN  REGIONAL  LIBRARY  FACILITY 


AA    001  221  147    o 


